The UK government has approved a landmark national security package signed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday. The new regulation effectively gives TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, an ultimatum to sell TikTok’s British business to a local company in the next nine months or face an effective ban on the platform.
Reuters now reports that ByteDance is not willing to sell off TikTok to a British company and would rather have its platform shut down. TikTok’s algorithms are considered core to ByteDance’s operation, making a potential sale of the platform unviable. ByteDance will appeal the ban in court and hopes to block the recently passed legislation.
In related news, The information issued a report claiming that ByteDance is looking at the possibility of selling a majority stake in TikTok without including its algorithm. These claims were later denied by ByteDance in a press release on the Chinese media platform Toutiao.