TikTok says Oracle will be a technology provider and Walmart a business partner. (Proceedings)
Washington:
Popular video app TikTok announced on Saturday that it has proposed a deal with Oracle as its US technology provider and Walmart as a business partner, a potential deal that US President Donald Trump touted as “fantastic. “.
“We are pleased that the proposal from TikTok, Oracle and Walmart will resolve the security concerns of the United States Administration and resolve doubts about the future of TikTok in the United States,” a spokeswoman for TikTok, owned by ByteDance, told AFP. China.
Oracle will become the “trusted technology provider, responsible for hosting all US user data and protecting associated computer systems to ensure that US national security requirements are fully met,” the spokeswoman said. “We are also currently working with Walmart on a trade partnership.”
He gave some additional details about the deal, aside from saying that the companies will “maintain and expand” TikTok’s global headquarters in the US and create 25,000 new jobs.
Trump had previously praised the deal as “fantastic.”
“I have given my blessing to the deal,” he said. “If they do, it’s great, if they don’t, that’s fine too.”
Trump has claimed for weeks that TikTok is collecting data from Beijing users, never providing proof of his allegations.
In early August, he gave ByteDance until September 20 to hand over TikTok’s US operations to an American company.
And on Friday, the Trump administration ordered a ban on downloads from the video-sharing app as well as the Chinese-owned messaging platform WeChat, escalating a fight with Beijing over the technology.
Following the announcement of TikTok, the US delayed the ban on downloading the app until September 27.
Trump said that “security will be 100 percent” and that companies will use separate cloud servers.
The agreement will lead to the creation of a new company, based in Texas, that “will have nothing to do with China” but will continue to be called TikTok, according to the president.
Trump also said the companies involved will make a $ 5 billion contribution to “the education of America’s youth.” He had previously said that the federal government deserved a cut of the deal for authorizing it.
The TikTok spokeswoman only confirmed the creation of new jobs and that the company’s global headquarters would remain in the United States.
Oracle confirmed its part of the deal in a statement, saying that TikTok’s decision was “heavily influenced by Zoom’s recent success in moving a large portion of its video conferencing capacity to Oracle Public Cloud.”
Walmart did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
‘Intimidation’
According to Friday’s US order against Chinese apps, WeChat, owned by Tencent, would lose functionality in the United States as of Sunday.
Following the announcement of the TikTok-Oracle-Walmart deal, TikTok users will be banned from installing updates as of September 27, but could continue to access the service until November 12.
That time frame potentially allows the deal with Walmart and Oracle to be locked in, to safeguard data from the wildly popular app to ease Washington’s security concerns.
The TikTok brand of short, quirky phone videos has become hugely popular, especially among young people, with 100 million users in the United States alone.
With Trump facing a tough re-election campaign, US officials have described the measures as essential to guarding against potential Chinese espionage through the platforms.
But in response, China’s Commerce Ministry on Saturday condemned what it called US “harassment,” saying it violated international trade rules and there was no evidence of any security threat, shortly before launching a mechanism that would allow it to sanction. to foreign companies.
China’s long-awaited “list of untrustworthy entities” is seen as a weapon for Beijing to retaliate against the United States, which has used its own “list of entities” to exclude Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from the US market, in addition to the recent measures. against TikTok and WeChat.
Trump’s critics have said that while TikTok’s security risks were unclear, the widespread ban raises concerns about the government’s ability to regulate free speech.
The ban intensifies the battle with Beijing over technology, which some analysts say is based more on competitive concerns than security.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
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