Some British lawmakers push back on TikTok’s possible HQ move from California to London, sources say

Name: Trump gives Microsoft 45 days to buy TikTok from China’s Bytedance
Uploaded: 2020-08-03T16:47:44.000Z
Duration: 1 min 14 s
Description: Trump gives Microsoft 45 days to buy TikTok from China’s Bytedance

Parent company ByteDance admitted on Monday that TikTok’s headquarters may be established outside the United States

US president has given ByteDance until September 15 to work out possible sale to Microsoft, or any other US company

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If TikTok moves its headquarters to London, it would join tech giants like Google and Facebook, which already have a strong presence in the British capital. Photo: Bloomberg

Stuart Lau

Published: 12:47am, 4 Aug 2020Updated: 5:55am, 4 Aug 2020

Some British lawmakers are pushing back against a possible relocation of TikTok’s headquarters from California to London in response to threats by the US government to ban the video-sharing app, according to government sources familiar with the matter.

Parent company ByteDance admitted on Monday that TikTok’s headquarters may be established outside the United States, as the Post reported that the founder Zhang Yiming “disagrees” with the conclusion of the US decision on its risks to national security.

“ByteDance is committed to being a global company. In light of the current situation, ByteDance has been evaluating the possibility of establishing TikTok’s headquarters outside of the US, to better serve our global users,” a ByteDance spokesperson said.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he was planning to ban TikTok in the United States but reversed course over the weekend, giving ByteDance until September 15 to work out a possible sale to Microsoft, or any other US company.

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Trump gives Microsoft 45 days to buy TikTok from China’s Bytedance

ByteDance has reached out to the British government recently with a 3 billion pound (US$3.9 billion) investment plan, sources say.