WASHINGTON, Feb 11, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – President Joe Biden’s administration
has asked a US federal court to pause proceedings aimed at banning TikTok to
allow for a fresh review of the national security threat from the popular
Chinese-owned video app.
The filing in a federal appeals court said the new administration had begun
a review and would not for the moment press for a ban of the mobile app as
sought by former president Donald Trump.
The filing said the Commerce Department “plans to conduct an evaluation of
the underlying record justifying those prohibitions” sought by the previous
administration of Donald Trump, which claimed TikTok posed a national
security threat because of its links to the Chinese government.
After the new review, the administration “will then be better positioned to
determine whether the national security threat” from TikTok.
“The Department of Commerce remains committed to a robust defense of
national security as well as ensuring the viability of our economy and
preserving individual rights and data privacy,” the filing said.
The Trump administration move to ban downloads of TikTok and its presence
on online networks had been stalled amid legal challenges.
In a related development, the Wall Street Journal reported the Biden
administration has also put on hold a plan to force the sale of TikTok to
American investors. The Journal, citing unnamed sources, said the Biden White
House had indefinitely shelved the plan to require the sale of TikTok, owned
by China’s ByteDance, to US tech giant Oracle with Walmart as a partner.
The Journal said the new administration is in the midst of a review of data
security and ways to prevent the information TikTok collects on American
users from being accessed by the Chinese government, but that there would be
no imminent move to force the sale.
The White House did not directly address the report, but spokeswoman Jen
Psaki said: “It’s not accurate to suggest that there is a new proactive step
by the Biden White House.”
Psaki added that there is a “rigorous” review of data security of TikTok by
an interagency government panel, with no timetable set.
“I will note broadly speaking that we are comprehensively evaluating the
risks… to US data including from TikTok and will address them in a decisive
and effective fashion,” she said.
TikTok, the wildly popular app with an estimated 100 million US users, has
repeatedly defended itself against allegations of data transfers to the
Chinese government, saying it stores user information on servers in the
United States and Singapore.
A tentative deal unveiled by the Trump administration would make Silicon
Valley giant Oracle the technology partner for TikTok and a stakeholder in a
new entity to be known as TikTok Global.