TikTok Oracle Deal Is Being Criticized For Not Selling The Business

The TikTok case has recently become a political issue because US President Donald Trump has given the social network and the Chinese owner ByteDance an ultimatum: Either the US business is sold or it is banned. But things are getting more and more complex.

TikTok and ByteDance have been given until September 20th to find a buyer. However, this date is more of a theoretical or public nature, as there is a second deadline in mid-November, not to mention the legal steps that have yet to be decided by the courts in this matter.

In the meantime, however, it is known that Oracle, well, what will actually be? Because so far there has always been a talk of TikTok’s US business being sold. But that would not be the case with the Oracle deal if it were actually carried through. And so there is meanwhile, as SlashGear reports, increasing resistance to the Oracle business.

Oracle as a watchdog

This is mainly due to the fact that the Oracle takeover is not one. Because practically nothing would change in the structure of the social network in terms of ownership, ByteDance would still own the US shares in TikTok. This also partially destroyed the argument that TikTok had to be sold for reasons of national security. According to the official diction, Oracle would only be a “trustworthy technology partner” and not the owner of TikTok. Oracle would have insight into the source code as well as technology to ensure that the Chinese government has no back doors. In addition, data from US users would only be stored in the USA.

As mentioned, ByteDance would remain majority-owned by TikTok, the same applies to software and algorithms. In short, not much would change except that Oracle is allowed to play watchdog. The reactions to the alleged deal are correspondingly negative and it remains to be seen whether this will actually happen.