The Straits Times reported today (May 5) that "U.S. President Donald Trump said that if the sale of TikTok agreement cannot be reached before the June 19 deadline, he will extend the deadline for ByteDance to divest its U.S. assets of TikTok again."
Trump stated that TikTok has helped him gain widespread support from young voters in the 2024 presidential election, so he has a "special liking" for this application.
To comment briefly: From multiple perspectives, it is unlikely that China would agree to sell TikTok. From a technical standpoint, TikTok's algorithm technology is at its core competitiveness and also a key intellectual property of ByteDance. In August 2020, the "Technical Directory of Technologies Prohibited from Export or Restricted for Export" issued by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China added "personalized information push service technology based on data analysis," which may involve TikTok technology. ByteDance owns several frontier technologies in the field of artificial intelligence, which are of great significance to China's digital economic development and technological innovation. Selling TikTok means that core technologies may flow out, which is something that both the Chinese government and enterprises will not allow lightly. Moreover, TikTok's algorithm is shared with other applications under ByteDance, and separating the algorithm is not only extremely complex but will also damage the integrity of the entire technical ecosystem.
In terms of law and policy, according to relevant laws and regulations of China's technology import and export management, administrative licensing procedures must be followed for technology exports. The sale of TikTok involves a technology export issue; if the transaction is not recognized by Chinese laws and regulations, it will not be acknowledged by the Chinese government. ByteDance has repeatedly emphasized that it has no plan to sell TikTok. It is rumored that if all legal means to challenge the U.S. ban fail, ByteDance would rather shut down its U.S. business than sell it. TikTok has a large user base and commercial ecosystem in the United States, creating a large number of jobs and economic value for the U.S. Although shutting down the business will result in losses, it also demonstrates ByteDance's determination not to easily give up its assets.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1831239642114051/
Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author.