Oracle and ByteDance have reached a “technical partnership” for TikTok’s US operations, according to The Wall Street Journal. This, however, does not include the sale of the popular video-sharing app.
A number of people familiar with the matter believe that Oracle will address the national security concerns surrounding TikTok, raised by the Trump Administration.
Sources told FT that the US tech company was already in “preliminary talks with TikTok owner Bytedance, and was working with a group of investors that already holds a stake in the Chinese company.”
This comes shortly after Microsoft revealed that ByteDance has rejected its bid to acquire TikTok – the acquisition would’ve allowed Microsoft to own and operate the TikTok service in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The tech giant revealed that it would have made ‘significant changes’ to the way that ByteDance and TikTok deal with security, privacy and online safety – something that it believes would have been good for American users.
“ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft. We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users while protecting national security interests,” says Microsoft in a statement.
“To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement. We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas.”
