ByteDance - Page 6

The Chinese-owned social media app TikTok has reportedly agreed to pay $92 million to settle dozens of lawsuits alleging that the app harvested personal data from users without consent and shared the data with third-parties, including some in China. Experts are calling it one of the largest privacy-related payouts in history.

In a formal government notice issued this week, the Commerce Department stated that the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok won’t be shut down just yet.

The Chinese-owned social media firm TikTok has asked a federal appeals court to void the Trump administration’s order demanding that the company divest its operations in the U.S. TikTok’s Chinese parent company claims the order violates its Constitutional rights.

The federal government appealed a judge’s ruling on Thursday that prevented the Trump administration from imposing a ban on the Chinese-owned app TikTok over national security concerns.

Last week, Chinese Communist state media were hailing a prospective deal between Chinese company ByteDance, Oracle, and Walmart for control of the TikTok social media platform as a huge win for ByteDance and China, and a crushing defeat for President Donald Trump — The terms of the deal, however, changed a little over the ensuing week, prompting Chinese media to denounce it as “highway robbery” on Friday.

ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of video-sharing app TikTok, has requested a temporary block on a ban of the app by the Trump administration. A U.S. judge has now ordered the federal government to defend the ban on Friday afternoon, or delay the blacklisting scheduled for Sunday.

A recent report shows that tensions between TikTok and its potential U.S. partner, Oracle, have risen as a debate over the ownership structure of the potential U.S.-based corporation continues.

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has emphasized that it will remain in control of the TikTok Global business which appears to contradict President Trump’s recent statement that the entity will be direct by Americans and pay a $5 billion fee to the U.S. government.

President Trump has approved a deal that would create a partnership between the Chinese app TikTok and Oracle and Walmart to manage TikTok’s operation in America. TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, will own a majority share of the company and maintain ownership of TikTok’s all-important algorithms. 

China’s state-run Global Times on Thursday praised “defiant” ByteDance, parent company of the video microblogging platform TikTok, for refusing to sell full control of the platform to an American company to avoid getting banned by the Trump administration.

A recent report by Reuters claims that the U.S. Commerce Department plans to block downloads of the Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat in the United States by Sunday, September 20. This claim, made by three sources, could indicate the Trump White House is not satisfied by the Oracle deal to be a “trusted” partner for TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance.

As Silicon Valley giant Oracle faces backlash over its recent deal with Chinese company ByteDance to enter a partnership with TikTok, the company has promised to review the video-sharing app’s source code and software to ensure that there are no software backdoors that could be accessed by the Chinese government.

Chinese state media praised the proposed deal between TikTok creators ByteDance and Oracle Corporation on Tuesday, with the Communist Party’s Global Times saluting it as recognition for “the hard-won efforts of the Chinese company amid a lack of trust between the world’s two largest economies.”

According to a recent report, Microsoft’s reference to the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok as a “security risk” offended the company’s CEO, Yiming Zhang, resulting in the sale of TikTok to the tech giant falling through.

Oracle has won the bidding to take over the U.S. operations of the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, beating out Microsoft in a deal to allow the platform to continue operating in the United States. According to some sources familiar with the deal, it is closer to a “partnership” than an outright acquisition.

Tech giant Oracle, considered Google’s arch-enemy in Silicon Valley, has reportedly joined the race to purchase the U.S. operations of the Chinese-owned app TikTok. Microsoft had previously announced plans to negotiate a purchase of the social media company.

U.S. employees of the popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok reportedly plan to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration over a recent executive order banning the app.

A former chief of Britain’s security service, MI6, warned top politicians in Britain that if their children use the Chinese social media app Tik Tok, the communist regime may have a backdoor into their private data.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reportedly backed the idea of Chinese app TikTok basing its global headquarters in London, as President Donald Trump prepares to ban or force the sale of the app in America.

Trump said Friday night on Air Force One that he was prepared to ban TikTok — currently owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance.

TikTok should be banned from the U.S. given its role in surveilling Americans, said Gordon Chang, Daily Beast columnist and author of The Great U.S.-China Tech War, offering his comments on the Wednesday edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight.

TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform that has reached massive popularity with American teens, has poached from the upper ranks of the Walt Disney Company to find its new CEO.

According to a recent report, the founder of ByteDance, the Chinese company behind popular social media app TikTok, has told employees that the company will be focusing on global expansion in the coming years.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) slammed social media company Tik Tok for bowing to pressure from its parent company, the Chinese-owned ByteDance, calling it “censorship from Beijing.”

Social media app TikTok has taken down accounts that were posting propaganda videos for the Islamic State group, a company employee said Tuesday, in the latest scandal to hit the popular platform.