China is implementing new technology export regulations that could mean that any sale of TikTok by ByteDance would need Beijing’s approval. China has added 23 technologies to a list of technologies banned from being exported from the country, including personal information services based on data analytics and artificial intelligence interactive interface technology. According to the Wall Street Journal, a Chinese government official told the state-run Xinhua news agency that ByteDance should carefully consider ending talks to sell TikTok. Microsoft was the first U.S. company to express interest in acquiring TikTok, which is expected to include Walmart, and other major tech companies, including Twitter, Netflix and Oracle, are also reportedly in talks.
Amidst all these circumstances and scenarios that have been created around TikTok in the US, TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer resigned on August 27, completing just six months at the company. The changes to China's export regulations came to light just days after Kevin Mayar mentioned in his resignation letter to staff that the company would reach a resolution very soon.
Moreover, this move by China comes after Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 6, blocking all transactions with ByteDance and requiring a US company to buy TikTok’s US business. The order was to take effect within 45 days. Also on August 14, Trump signed an order giving ByteDance 90 days to sell or spin off TikTok in the US.
Trump issued the executive orders, saying that apps like TikTok and WeChat pose a threat to the United States. The president called the two Chinese apps a “national emergency” in relation to the information and communications technology supply chain. Specifically, he said that TikTok automatically collects a lot of information from its users, such as Internet and other network activity information, such as location data and browsing and search history. He added that this data collection poses the risk of allowing the Chinese Communist Party to access sensitive and confidential information of American citizens, potentially enabling China to track the locations of US employees and agencies, create files of personal information for blackmail, and conduct espionage .
So far, TikTok has been downloaded over 175 million times in the US and around 800 million times worldwide.
