Jo Biden Set To Abandon Trump's Plans To Either Ban Chinese App TikTok On National Security Grounds Or Force A Sale To Oracle And Walmart

The plan by the Donald Trump administration to force the sale of TikTok’s American operations to a consortium including Oracle Corp and Walmart has been shelved indefinitely, The Wall Street Journal reported .

Last year, the Trump administration brokered a deal that would have had U.S. corporations Oracle and Walmart take a large stake in the Chinese-owned app on national-security grounds.

In a separate but related development, the Biden administration is also backing off from proceeding with Trump administration 's attempts to ban the popular video app TikTok on national security grounds.

In a court filing, Department of Justice requested a judge to postpone a legal dispute over the proposed ban of TikTok pending a broader review of the national security threats posed by Chinese technology companies.

Last year, the Trump administration brokered a transaction that would have had U.S. corporations Oracle and Walmart take a large stake in the Chinese-owned app on national-security grounds.

The plan was unveiled one day ahead of the deadline that the then U.S President Donald Trump set for ByteDance to divest TikTok’s US operations or risk being blacklisted in America. Bytedance announced that it has accepted a partnership offer from Oracle on TikTok’s US operations.

Under the plan, a new entity was proposed to be set up to control U.S operations of TikTok with Oracle Corp and Walmart Inc owning a significant stake. Their participation, together with existing U.S.-based ByteDance investors like Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic and Coatue Management LLC, would have provided U.S. ownership in the new entity above 50%.

A Federal district judge in US also temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's ban of Chinese short-video sharing platform TikTok in the United States (US).The move was a major reprieve for Chinese technology behemoth ByteDance which owns TikTok, as without the judgement, it would have been banned in the US and removed from the US app marketplaces operated by Apple Inc and Google on the iOS and Android platforms.