Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

TikTok’s owner ‘understands’ but ‘disagrees’ with US ruling to divest the app

TikTok’s owner ‘understands’ but ‘disagrees’ with US ruling to divest the app

The CEO of TikTok’s parent company ByteDance tells employees that the firm ‘disagrees’ with the conclusion reached by CFIUS that the company must fully divest its US operations.
As TikTok faces a potential forced sale in the US, the founder of its Chinese parent company ByteDance said on Monday that it “disagrees” with the conclusion of the US government panel that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments, when it said ByteDance must fully divest TikTok's US operations.

“We have always been committed to user safety, platform neutrality, and transparency. However, we understand their decision in the current macro environment,” ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming said in a bilingual internal memo to employees on Monday afternoon, according to one employee who saw it. A ByteDance spokeswoman confirmed the contents of the letter to the South China Morning Post.

Zhang's memo came after US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would sign an executive order as soon as Saturday to ban TikTok in the United States, after dismissing the idea of a sale to Microsoft. The inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) launched a review of TikTok last year.

However, Trump has since agreed to give Beijing-based ByteDance 45 days to negotiate a sale of the app to Microsoft, according to a Reuters report on Monday citing three people familiar with the matter.

Microsoft said in a statement on Sunday that following a conversation between its chief executive Satya Nadella and Trump, the US software giant is prepared to continue discussions to explore its purchase of TikTok and will complete these discussions no later than September 15.

Zhang said in the memo that “to help resolve these issues, we initiated preliminary discussions with a tech company to help clear the way for us to continue offering the TikTok app in the US,” without clarifying.

“We do not yet know the exact details of what our end solution will be. Candidly, it is unlikely that the level of interest and speculation around TikTok will cease in the short term, and I recognise that this can be very distracting,” Zhang said.

He said that he is “confident in the long-term success of TikTok, and believe [it] can become an even more trusted product.”

Zhang said ByteDance has “fully cooperated” with the CFIUS review of its 2017 acquisition of the US-based Musical.ly app, which was later renamed TikTok.

On Monday, China's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that Beijing “firmly opposes” the US “presumption of guilt on certain companies”, without naming TikTok.

“We urge the US to provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment, to stop politicising economic and trade issues, to stop abusing the concept of national security, and to stop promoting discriminatory and exclusive policies,” said Wang
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
×