ByteDance rejects Microsoft's offer for TikTok's US operations

The long, always-changing landscape of the TikTok drama with the Trump assistants at least has one chapter now closed: Microsoft. On late Dominicus, Microsoft appear the news in a terse public statement. The total statement from Microsoft reads in full:

ByteDance let united states know today they would not be selling TikTok's United states operations to Microsoft. We are confident our proposal would have been skilful for TikTok's users while protecting national security interests. To practise this, we would accept fabricated meaning changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles articulate in our August statement. Nosotros look forrad to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas.

The New York Times sheds low-cal on the story noting that this leaves just Oracle in the running – a visitor with public allegiance to Trump. ̶W̶h̶i̶l̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶o̶d̶d̶ ̶f̶i̶t̶,̶ ̶O̶r̶a̶c̶l̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶p̶i̶t̶a̶l̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶d̶o̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶o̶p̶u̶l̶a̶r̶ ̶s̶o̶c̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶n̶e̶t̶w̶o̶r̶k̶.̶ ̶B̶o̶t̶h̶ ̶B̶y̶t̶e̶D̶a̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶O̶r̶a̶c̶l̶e̶ ̶d̶e̶c̶l̶i̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶N̶e̶w̶ ̶Y̶o̶r̶k̶ ̶T̶i̶m̶e̶s̶.̶

Update, September fourteen (ten:30 am ET): Oracle confirmed in a statement that it is "office of the proposal submitted past ByteDance to the Treasury Department over the weekend in which Oracle will serve as the trusted engineering provider."

While no apparent reason was revealed equally to why TikTok rejected Microsoft'due south bid, the Times reported the U.S. takeover'southward latitude would have to be significant for Microsoft, making ByteDance skittish:

The Chinese regulations helped scuttle the attempt by Microsoft, which said the only way information technology could both protect the privacy of TikTok users in the United states and prevent Beijing from using the app equally a venue for disinformation was to take over the computer source code underlying the app, and the algorithms that determine what videos are seen past the 100 1000000 Americans who utilise it each calendar month.

Oracle, at least publicly, has not committed to such stringent requirements.

The TikTok soap opera with Microsoft began on August 6th. The saga speedily spiraled into madness afterward that with Walmart entering the fray, Nib Gates chiming in, and plenty of impromptu demands from the Trump administration (non to mention China).

For at present, Microsoft appears to take dodged a bullet that may accept been politically unpopular in the long term.

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