ByteDance may have slightly longer to sell TikTok but Trump has also strengthened his hand, analysts say
- President Donald Trump ordered ByteDance on Friday to divest the US operations of its video-sharing app TikTok within 90 days
- This comes on top of an executive order he issued last week that would prohibit certain transactions with TikTok unless ByteDance divests it within 45 days
ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I think it’s clear that Trump is being pressured to extend the deadline by tech companies like Microsoft, or investors like Sequoia because the original 45 day deadline was way too short,” Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, told the Post on Saturday.
Trump orders ByteDance to divest US TikTok operations within 90 days
Analysts have said that Trump’s previous executive order fell short of clarifying how the app threatens American security and that to force a sale of TikTok’s US operations within 45 days was more likely to lead to chaos than to a resolution.
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But Jeffrey Towson, a former professor of investment at Peking University, said the new order may be more difficult to challenge legally.
“[The new order] doesn’t say this is banned in the US,” Towson said. “What it says is Chinese companies can’t own it. So, in that sense, it’s harder to challenge that legally. It doesn’t make US consumers who like to use TikTok annoyed because they can still use TikTok. It’s not a ban.”
Friday’s announcement also authorises US officials to inspect TikTok and ByteDance’s books and information systems, to ensure the safety of personal data while the sale talks are ongoing. Among other things, the order requires ByteDance to destroy any data from TikTok users in the United States.
However, one lawyer said it may not be so easy for US authorities to get access to this information.
“The US government also has to go through a formal process to get information and data about Bytedance in the US,” said the lawyer from an independent law firm, who declined to be named as she was not authorised to speak by her company. “ByteDance has an obligation to protect its users’ information and data, and in general that can not be disclosed without a search warrant, court order, or other statutory means.”
(Alibaba is the parent company of the Post.)
“My expectation is you're going to have three or four stories every week until the election. They’re going to go after something different every day,” Rein said.
