ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has refuted fresh rumors that it intends to sell the business after the US Senate’s passage of the TikTok Ban Bill.
The business rejected the claim by the American news website The Information in a statement posted on Toutiao, one of its Chinese media platforms.
According to the website’s news article, ByteDance is investigating the possibility of selling TikTok’s US operations without the algorithm that suggests videos to viewers.
A bill that would have banned TikTok from the United States if its owner hadn’t divested the well-known short video app over the next nine months to a year was signed into law by American President Joe Biden earlier this week.
Conversely, ByteDance stated that if it has run out of legal ways to oppose legislation that would bar the platform from US app stores, it would sooner close down its loss-making app than sell it, four individuals told Reuters.
According to those close to ByteDance, the algorithms TikTok uses to run its business are seen to be essential to the company’s entire operations, making the sale of the app doubtful.
The parent company of ByteDance stated that, in the worst situation, they would prefer to have the app shut down in the United States rather than sell it to a possible American buyer because TikTok only contributes a small portion of ByteDance’s daily active users and overall earnings.
The individuals, who wished to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said that a shutdown would have little effect on ByteDance’s operations and that the company would not have to give up its basic algorithm.
