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Steven Mnuchin, who served as Treasury Secretary, has confirmed that he is still pursuing the acquisition of the social media giant TikTok. 

He expressed his interest in a Bloomberg Television interview, stating, “I’m very interested in buying TikTok,” and noted plans to revamp its underlying technology even if Chinese restrictions prevent the sale of its current algorithm. “I’ve actually spoken to a lot of tech companies on working about rebuilding this,” Mnuchin said.

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Mnuchin outlined his vision for TikTok’s future under US leadership, aiming to sever all connections with ByteDance and enhance the platform’s security. This plan comes in response to recent US legislation signed by President Biden, which compels ByteDance to divest its TikTok operations within a year or face a potential ban. 

Despite potential hurdles such as the Chinese government’s reluctance to export the app’s algorithm, Mnuchin remains optimistic. “The Chinese government has been very clear that they won’t give an export license on the algorithm, and I understand that. We have sensitive technology that we don’t want to transfer to them, and they don’t want to transfer this to the US.”

The path to acquisition has its challenges. TikTok and ByteDance have initiated litigation against the new law, arguing it violates the First Amendment. Mnuchin expressed concerns that if legal disputes extend over months, they could critically shorten the window for rebuilding TikTok’s technology to comply with US standards. “We think, given the year, it can be rebuilt. But the problem is, if they’re gonna pursue litigation and that takes six months, it will inevitably end up with too short of a period of time to rebuild the technology.”

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