The Biden administration supports former President Donald Trump’s attempts to ban the popular video app TikTok and asks a judge to delay a legal dispute over the proposed ban as the government begins a broader review of the national security threats from Chinese technology companies.
A court filing Wednesday said the U.S. Department of Commerce is reviewing whether Trump’s claims about TikTok’s threat to national security justify attempts to ban it from smartphone app stores and deny it vital technical services. .
Separately, the Biden government has suspended a proposed US takeover of TikTok “indefinitely,” according to a Wall Street Journal report.. Last year, the Trump administration struck a deal that would have seen US companies Oracle and Walmart take a major stake in the Chinese app for national security reasons.
The unusual settlement stemmed from an executive order from Trump that aimed to ban TikTok in the US unless it accepted a greater degree of US control.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki did not deny the Journal report, but said on Wednesday that the Biden administration has not taken “another proactive step” in the process.
Psaki added that the Biden administration is extensively evaluating the risks to US data, including those related to TikTok. A review of TikTok by the Commission on Foreign Investment in the United States, which takes into account the impact of such investments on national security, is underway, Psaki said. She did not provide a timetable for that process.
Trump targeted TikTok over the summer with a series of executive orders expressing concerns about the US data TikTok is collecting from its users. But the courts temporarily blocked the White House’s bid to ban, and the presidential election soon took the shadow of the TikTok battle.
While President Joe Biden has said that TikTok is a problem, his government had not said whether it will continue to try to ban TikTok or force a sale. Biden has taken a cautious approach so far to inherit Trump’s Chinese policy and has not pledged to scale back or cancel tariffs and other combat measures.
The Biden administration appears to be creating a clearer set of criteria for assessing which Chinese technology platforms pose a legitimate security risk to Americans, said Samm Sacks, a China expert at Yale Law School.
“I don’t think they see TikTok itself as a high priority issue,” she said, calling it a hypothetical future threat. “This one-time ban on a varying group of Chinese technology companies is unlikely to go ahead.”
In September, Trump gave his tentative blessing on a proposal from TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance that would form a new US arm of TikTok in partnership with Oracle and Walmart, which would make significant investments in the new company. The scheme focused on manually managing the app’s US user data to Oracle. However, CFIUS has not completed the required revision of the agreement. A government deadline for TikTok to sell its US operations has passed.
TikTok is now looking to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review Trump’s divestment warrant and the government’s national security scrutiny.
TikTok and Oracle did not return requests for comment on Wednesday. Walmart declined comment on Wednesday, referring questions to the Biden administration.
The Treasury Department, which chairs the CFIUS agency reviewing the TikTok deal, did not respond to a request for comment. Neither the Department of Commerce, which had tried to enforce Trump’s orders last year, nor the Department of Justice, which is handling the lawsuits.
The Chinese government’s position on the deal is unclear. State media in September criticized the proposal as harassment and extortion by the US.
Trump expressed concern that the Chinese government could spy on TikTok users if the app remains in Chinese hands. TikTok has denied it is a security threat but said it was still trying to work with the US government to address its concerns.
TikTok said Oracle and Walmart could acquire a joint 20% stake in the new company ahead of an IPO of TikTok, which Walmart said could happen in the coming year. Oracle’s stake would be 12.5% and Walmart’s would be 7.5%.
Where Oracle stood for data management, Walmart said it would provide e-commerce, fulfillment, payments and other services to the new company. TikTok said in a November lawsuit that the new entity, owned by Oracle’s existing US investors, Walmart and ByteDance, would be responsible for TikTok’s US user data and content moderation.
The Trump administration’s aggressive tactics were part of a wider effort to counter China’s influence. During his tenure, Trump waged a trade war with China, blocked mergers involving Chinese companies and suppressed the affairs of Chinese companies such as Huawei, a manufacturer of phones and telecom equipment.
The Biden administration shares many of the Trump administration’s concerns about Chinese technology and trade practices, but they are likely to “use different tactics and keys to achieve those strategic goals,” said Martijn Rasser, a senior fellow at the Center for a. New American security.
“They are taking a holistic, strategic approach to these issues and not going after these companies once,” he said. “It’s part of a broader reassessment.”