United States Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, said on Thursday that Tiktok will have to stop operating in the United States if China does not approve an agreement to sell the Chinese property application used by about 170 million Americans.
Speaking to CNBC, Lutnick also said the US should control the algorithm that makes the platform work.
Last month, US President Donald Trump extended for 90 days until September 17, the deadline for Chinese bytedance to sell Tiktok assets in the US. The measure was taken despite a 2024 law, which determined the sale or closure of operations until January 19 this year, if there was no significant progress.
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“China can maintain a small participation, or currently owner’s Bytedance, it can have a small part. But basically Americans will have control. The Americans will be owners of technology and control the algorithm,” Lutnick said.
“If this agreement is approved by the Chinese, it will happen. If they do not approve, Tiktok will go down, and these decisions will be made very soon.”
Tiktok did not commented right away.
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A deal that provided for the separation of Tiktok operations in the US in a new company, with US investor’s majority operation and control, was underway this year. However, he was interrupted after China signaled that it would not approve the business, in the wake of the announcement of Trump of high tariffs on Chinese products.
(Report by David Shepardson and Jasphet Singh in Bengaluru)
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