TikTok misses US sale deadline but government has no plans to punish

The deadline set by the Trump administration for the forced sale of TikTok’s US assets has not and likely will not be enforced by the government.

A continuing drama throughout the summer, the administration mandated that parent company ByteDance divest its US business over national security concerns. The deadline was delayed multiple times, and the company had agreed to sell part of its business off in a deal involving Oracle and Walmart. This deal is yet to be approved by the Chinese government, and talks with the US government are ongoing.

Bloomberg reports that the treasury department told both TikTok and its parent company ByteDance that it wouldn’t face a fine as negotiations are still ongoing. The administration is keen to complete the sale before the inauguration of Joe Biden as president on January 20, with the Democrat taking less of an anti-China stance in his approach to foreign policy.

The Trump camp has consistently argued that the private data of US citizens could be handed over to the CCP in China. TikTok meanwhile previously referred to the ban as an election stunt designed to feed into the Trump campaign’s anti-China rhetoric during the general election cycle.

State media in China has also been critical of the enforced sale, with a foreign ministry spokesperson referring to it as a ‘bullying’ tactic from the administration.

TikTok’s run-in with the government also cost the company its CEO, former Disney D2C boss Kevin Mayer who left the role after three months.

The incumbent president of the US meanwhile has entirely engrossed himself with a disinformation campaign surrounding last month’s presidential election, with Trump fighting the results on unfounded grounds of fraud.