LOS ANGELES: Video-sharing social networking platform TikTok said Monday that it had submitted a proposal to the U.S. administration to resolve its “security concerns.”
Oracle, an American multinational computer technology corporation, also confirmed in a statement released on the same day that it had reached a deal with TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, to be the company’s trusted U.S. partner.
Though details of the partnership remain unclear yet, Oracle’s pairing with TikTok is widely viewed as “a marriage at gun-point” squeezed out of Washington’s threat of banning TikTok’s operation in the United States.
The following is a timeline of the TikTok saga.
On July 31, U.S. President Donald Trump said he planned to ban TikTok in the United States within 24 hours.
On Aug. 3, American tech giant Microsoft revealed that it was in talks to buy parts of TikTok. Trump said he would give ByteDance 45 days to sell TikTok to a U.S. buyer.
On Aug. 5, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, commenting on the U.S.’ deadline for the TikTok deal, said China firmly opposed the U.S. side’s blatant bullying of certain non-U.S. enterprises in violation of market economy rules and the World Trade Organization’s principles of openness, transparency and non-discrimination. On Aug. 6, Trump issued an executive order banning transactions with ByteDance and its affiliates in 45 days. On Aug. 7, the New York Times reported that even the Central Intelligence Agency assessed that there was no evidence showing China had intercepted TikTok’s data or used the app to intrude into users’ devices.–Agencies
