Beijing Issues New Restrictions for TikTok Sale

Beijing announced new restrictions or bans on tech exports, requiring companies to seek government approval which New Chinese government restrictions could complicate ByteDance plans to sell TikTok to a US company.

The rules, which hadn’t been updated since 2008, are believed to be aimed at delaying the sale of TikTok to US buyers, as ordered by the US president.

On other hand, people close to the TikTok sale negotiations said the Chinese government’s decision could derail ByteDance’s plans to reach a preliminary agreement, which was expected as early as this week. Any deal would now take longer to assess in light of the export control changes.

Later, Vietnamese firm VNG is suing TikTok, the popular short-form video app, saying it does not have adequate licences for the songs being used in its videos.

VNG demands TikTok to remove all music segments taken from Zing records from both the TikTok application and website, and an indemnification for damages of over VND 221 billion.

According to Reuters, some music rights-holders say TikTok does not have adequate licences for the songs being used in its videos.

TikTok has introduced a very complicated business model to avoid copyright compliance in Vietnam,” the Vietnam Music Association said in a response to questions from Reuters.

Noteworthy, the application received lots of controversy from U.S. lawmakers and the Trump administration over national security concerns due to China’s ByteDance owning the technology. The company currently faces a deadline of Sept. 15 to either sell its U.S. operations to Microsoft Corp or being banned throughout America.

Under a Chinese law introduced in 2017, companies have an obligation to support and cooperate in the country’s national intelligence work.

Also, the United States Senate approved a bill from Senator Josh Hawley banning federal employees from using video-sharing application TikTok on government-issued devices, amid threats from the White House to ban the company due to accusations related to spying.

Last month, the House of Representatives voted to bar federal employees from downloading the app on government-issued devices as part of a proposal, offered by Representative Ken Buck.

With passage in the House and approval by the Senate, the prohibition is expected to soon become law in the United States.

TikTok has previously said its growing U.S. team has no higher priority than promoting a safe social media experience that protects users’ privacy. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On other hand, it said it was working with experts from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to “protect against foreign influence” and fact-check potential misinformation about the election.

Noteworthy, China condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s ban on the two Chinese apps, TikTok and WeChat, describing the decision as “political manipulation and repression.”

Later, Trump announced the closure of these two platforms within a period of 45 days, amid increasing tension between the United States and China.

Trump signed two executive orders preventing financial dealings after 45 days with the owners of the “TikTok” and “WeChat” applications, on suspicion of being exploited by China.