On Aug. 14, CFIUS released its ruling that ByteDance needed to divest its U.S. assets within 90 days, "unless such date is extended for a period not to exceed 30 days," which hasn't happened. With the Nov. 12 deadline still pending, ByteDance instead agreed to sell 20% of a new U.S. based company called TikTok Global to Oracle, which was seeking a high-profile cloud customer, and Walmart, which was interested in the platform as a channel for e-commerce.
A November 12 CFIUS deadline calls for ByteDance to "divest any tangible or intangible assets or property, wherever located, used to enable or support ByteDance's operation of the TikTok application in the United States." But the CFIUS order doesn't say what happens if ByteDance does not divest assets. That uncertainty prompted TikTok to file a petition in the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday, calling for a review of actions by CFIUS.
"For a year, TikTok has actively engaged with CFIUS in good faith to address its national security concerns, even as we disagree with its assessment," TikTok said in a statement. "In the nearly two months since the President gave his preliminary approval to our proposal to satisfy those concerns, we have offered detailed solutions to finalize that agreement – but have received no substantive feedback on our extensive data privacy and security framework."
TikTok hasn't heard from the Trump administration in weeks, prompting latest CFIUS petition.
Executives at the company are still interested in completing a technology partnership with Oracle to satisfy national security concerns -- even if President-Elect Joe Biden isn't as concerned with TikTok's risk profile under Chinese ownership. A Biden technology advisor to the transition said it was "too early to say" Biden's view on TikTok. Biden's campaign told employees to delete TikTok off their work and personal devices due to security concerns in July. source