Oracle Officially Named As TikTok’s US “Technology Provider”

Oracle Corp., the Redwood City, Calif.-based software and technology giant, has confirmed that it has been selected by ByteDance to be the “trusted technology provider” that will take over Chinese-based TikTok’s U.S. operations.

The two-sentence statement was issued Monday (Sept. 14) following U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s announcement of Oracle’s winning bid for TikTok’s U.S. operations on CNBC.

Oracle bested a bid by Microsoft Corp. for TikTok, a popular video-sharing app that President Donald Trump has threatened to ban in the United States over allegations that it could share Americans’ personal information with the Chinese government. He signed an executive order to do so unless ByteDance reached agreement to sell TikTok’s U.S. arm to an American firm in the next several weeks. However, it’s unclear if making Oracle a “trusted technology partner” for the operation means ByteDance is selling TikTok’s U.S. arm or not.

But in its blog on Sunday, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft wrote that ByteDance had given it a heads-up about Oracle’s winning bid. “We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users while protecting national security interests, “ Microsoft said. “To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement. We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas.”