New York (AFP)
The United States Department of Commerce on Thursday decided to postpone the application of an executive order that would have banned the light video platform TikTok on American soil by the end of the day, according to information from the Wall Street Journal.
This measure, signed in mid-August by Donald Trump, obliges ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, to sell the American activities of the platform within 90 days, in the name of "the national security of the United States".
The outgoing US president has accused for months, without proof, the very popular application of siphoning data from American users for the benefit of Beijing.
After negotiations with several companies, ByteDance and TikTok proposed to create a new company involving the IT group Oracle as a technology partner in the United States and retail giant Walmart as a business partner.
The project seemed to suit the US administration, but the platform is still awaiting the green light.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Commerce Department assures that the ban will not go into effect "pending further legal developments."
Contacted by AFP, the ministry did not immediately respond.
TikTok on Tuesday filed a petition with a Washington court to prevent the implementation of the presidential decree.
The application is also threatened with ban by a second decree, signed at the beginning of August.
But in late October, a Pennsylvania judge, seized by three TikTok content creators, ordered the US administration not to prevent other companies from providing essential services to the platform, such as online hosting.
© 2020 AFP