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TikTok owner ByteDance earns praise from Chinese social media for rejecting US sell-or-ban ultimatum
- Beijing-based ByteDance has rejected a report that said it was ‘exploring scenarios’ to sell a majority stake in TikTok’s US operations
- The privately held social media giant said it had no plans to sell TikTok
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Coco Fengin Beijing
ByteDance has earned praise from Chinese social media for denying a report that it was weighing a divestment of TikTok’s operations in America, a day after the United States government enacted into law a sell-or-ban ultimatum against the popular short video app.
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Beijing-based ByteDance late on Thursday rejected a report by US digital publication The Information, which said that it was “exploring scenarios” to sell a majority stake in TikTok’s US operations to firms outside the technology industry and without the algorithm that powers the platform.
In a statement posted on its Jinri Toutiao news platform, ByteDance said that it had no plans to sell TikTok. This marked the second time this year that ByteDance broke its silence on TikTok, following its denial of a report by The Wall Street Journal that company co-founder Zhang Yiming had discussed a sale of the short video platform’s US business to potential buyers.
The official denials issued by ByteDance show the company’s confidence in TikTok’s anticipated legal challenge to the US sell-or-ban measure against the social media platform.
ByteDance sees TikTok as having “a chance to win” when its challenge to the US measure finally ends up in court, according to a source close to the matter, who declined to be named because the legal strategy is private.
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The company would also prefer to shut down TikTok’s US operations rather than divest it after exhausting all legal options to fight the US sell-or-ban measure, according to a Reuters report on Friday that cited four sources.
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