Mnuchin Warns TikTok To Meet All U.S. Security Requirements In Oracle Deal Or Be Banned

Speaking at a CNBC investor conference on Wednesday, Mnuchin reportedly laid out strict security conditions for any deal with the Chinese company: “All of the code will have to be in the United States. Oracle will be responsible for rebuilding the code, sanitizing the code, making sure it’s safe in their cloud, and …it’ll satisfy all of our requirements.”

The hardline stance on security in a potential deal is unsurprising; the security of user data was a key motivator for the Trump administration’s move to ban the app.

In August, Trump signed an executive order threatening to ban TikTok if it was not sold to a U.S. company, describing it as a national security risk with user data is liable to be passed on to Chinese officials; TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, disputes this. 

The conditions follow President Trump’s recent preliminary approval of a deal that would see TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, spin out its U.S. operations into a new subsidiary, TikTok Global, and sell a 20% stake in it to Walmart and Oracle, with the latter shouldering data hosting responsibilities. 

While the details of ByteDance’s deal with Walmart and Oracle are still being worked out, both parties are on a tight deadline — Trump’s executive order called for a sale November 12.