• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, February 10, 2021

With the Biden administration now conducting its own review and policy development of the security risks posed by technology from China and other countries, TikTok has indefinitely suspended pursuit of a deal to sell its U.S. operations to Oracle and Walmart, according toWall Street Journal sources.

Former President Donald Trump, claiming security issues, forced the issue last August by signing two executive orders requiring that TikTok sell its U.S. operations to a U.S. company or be banned from the country.

However, the sale deal has been in limbo, as TikTok’s parent company, China’s ByteDance Ltd., has to date used legal challenges to stave off implementation of Trump’s orders.

In December, a federal judge blocked Trump’s threatened ban of the app, saying the Commerce Department likely overstepped its legal authority in issuing the order.

ByteDance and U.S. national security officials have continued to discuss data security and “ways to prevent the information TikTok collects on American users from being accessed by the Chinese government,” according to WSJ.

However, a resolution will likely not be reached until the Biden administration completes its review.

“We plan to develop a comprehensive approach to securing U.S. data that addresses the full range of threats we face,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne told WSJ. “This includes the risk posed by Chinese apps and other software that operate in the U.S. In the coming months, we expect to review specific cases in light of a comprehensive understanding of the risks we face.”