US TikTok ban delayed after tentative deal with Oracle, Walmart

Sep 21 2020, 6:16 pm

TikTok may continue to see the light of day, as Oracle and Walmart discuss the possible purchase of 20% of the popular Chinese mobile application.

Last week, the US Department of Commerce (USDOC) announced that downloading of mobile applications WeChat and TikTok would be prohibited in the United States starting September 20 due to security concerns.

The ban was pushed back a week to September 27, however, when the US government tentatively approved the sale of the app to the two American companies.

As a part of the deal, TikTok would create a new company called TikTok Global that will be responsible for providing all TikTok services to users in United States and most of those in the rest of the world.

This new independent company would be majority-owned by American investors, and headquartered in the US, with four of the five-member Board of Directors being American.

The TikTok technology will be in possession of TikTok Global and comply with US laws and privacy regulations using Oracle’s Generation 2 Cloud data centers. The decision to use Oracle was influenced by Zoom’s recent success in moving a large portion of its video conferencing capacity to the Oracle Public Cloud.

“We are a hundred percent confident in our ability to deliver a highly secure environment to TikTok and ensure data privacy to TikTok’s American users, and users throughout the world,” said Oracle CEO Safra Catz in a press release. “This greatly improved security and guaranteed privacy will enable the continued rapid growth of the TikTok user community to benefit all stakeholders.”

TikTok Global intends to create over 25,000 new jobs in the US as well as paying over 5 billion in new tax dollars to the US Treasury.

Alyssa TherrienAlyssa Therrien

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