Trump signed it in the summer of 2020.
The U.S. president signed the documents on Wednesday, June 9, according to The Verge.
Joe Biden instructed the U.S. Department of Commerce to investigate whether foreign applications that collect data from American users pose a threat to national security.
In February, the Wall Street Journal wrote that Biden had begun an “audit” of the previous U.S. president’s efforts to guard against potential threats from China. He “froze” the TikTok deal with Walmart and Oracle: the American companies were to buy out part of TikTok in order for the Chinese social network to continue operating in the United States.
- In September, the Trump administration decided to block TikTok on national security grounds – authorities accused the company of handing over U.S. user data to Chinese authorities.
- A compromise solution looked like this: ByteDance would create a new company, TikTok Global, and Oracle and Walmart would buy 12.5% and 7.5%, respectively. The headquarters would be located in the U.S., data would be stored on Oracle servers, and the head of the company and most of the board of directors would be Americans.
- In February 2021, a China Morning Post source reported that the owner of TikTok refused to sell the U.S. business to Oracle and Walmart.
