TikTok users who are worried that the lip-syncing and dancing video app will disappear in November can probably relax.
Despite a threatened presidential ban and an executive order for ByteDance Ltd. to sell its U.S. TikTok operations within 90 days, the Beijing, China-based video app isn’t going away.
“We believe we have multiple paths forward to ensure that we continue to provide this amazing app experience to the millions of Americans who come to rely on it every day,” TikTok's General Manager Vanessa Pappas told Bloomberg News.
One week ago, citing national concerns, President Donald Trump issued the executive order that forces the company to sell the popular video-sharing platform to an American company. So far, Microsoft Corp., Twitter and Oracle have expressed interest.
“There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance … might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,” Trump said in his order.
But Pappas said the company disagrees with the conclusions of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a federal agency that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments in companies or operations.
“We’ve made it clear that we strongly disagree with the conclusions of CFIUS, and we're certainly disappointed in the outcome that we saw there,” Pappas told the news service. “We still haven't been presented with any evidence to back up those claims and assertions.”
TikTok workers in its Los Angeles offices have raised questions about what will happen if the order is implemented in November. They want to know if they will continue to get paid and whether foreign workers could lose their work visas.
Pappas declined to discuss specifics, but she told Bloomberg that she’s provided TikTok’s 1,500 U.S. employees with opportunities to express their concerns in weekly town hall sessions.
“We’re in extremely turbulent times,” she told Bloomberg. “So our messaging is … let’s focus on the things that you can control. With pay, our commitment again has been steadfast. We have not wavered in our commitment either to our users or to our employees … we believe we are here for the long run.”
