Due to a US the ban, ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, apparently would prefer to shut down the app than sell it.

According to reports, TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, would rather shut down the famous video-sharing app than sell it if the Chinese company uses all of its legal options to fight a US ban. This is even though American buyers are becoming more interested in the platform.  

Sources close to the parent company said that selling the app with algorithms would not be a good idea because the algorithms that TikTok uses are important to how ByteDance works as a whole.

President Joe Biden signed a law on Wednesday that ByteDance has to sell the app within 270 days or face a ban. On Wednesday, TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew promised that the social media company would go to court.

The Information said on Thursday that ByteDance was looking into different ways to sell TikTok’s US business without the algorithm. ByteDance denied the story.

The company said on Toutiao, a media site it owns, that it had no plans to sell TikTok. The app brings in a small amount of income and daily active users for ByteDance.

The references said that a shutdown would not have a big effect on ByteDance’s firm and the company would not have to give into its core code. The sources did not want to be named because they were not allowed to talk to the media. 

ByteDance refused to say anything.

A representative for TikTok told The Post, “The Information story is not true.”

The Information’s story also said that TikTok would not give away its valuable formula, even if it sold its US business.

This secret formula, which makes each TikTok user’s “For You” page with videos that are likely to interest them, has been at the center of political arguments about whether the app should be banned in the US.

Some government officials have said that TikTok’s private algorithms have let people in China spy on American users, which is a threat to national security.

Since the US government is trying to ban the short-form video-sharing app TiTok, the company has already said it will fight the new rule in court, saying that it is “unconstitutional.”

The CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, said in a video posted right after Biden signed the bill, “Rest assured—we aren’t going anywhere,” giving ByteDance 270 days to sell off TikTok’s US assets.

“The Constitution and the realities are on our side, and we hope to succeed.”

People who like the new rule have told ByteDance to stop caring about its US TikTok fans so that the social media site can stay open.

“It doesn’t have to be this sad for ByteDance,” Illinois Democrat Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is also a bill co-sponsor, wrote most recently on X. “Getting rid of @tiktok_us would make things a lot easier for them.” They can choose.”

Rich American business and tech moguls were supposedly getting ready to make multibillion-dollar bids to buy TikTok, but ByteDance has since put an end to those dreams.

Steven Mnuchin, the former finance secretary, and Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, are two of the interested people. Kotick is said to have talked to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about a possible offer.

Some people also said that controversial Pershing Square hedge fund boss Bill Ackman and “Shark Tank” millionaire Kevin O’Leary would make an offer.

Unfortunately for these wealthy people who want to buy TikTok, ByteDance seems to be sticking to what China’s Commerce Ministry said last year: that it strongly opposes any sale.

Representatives for TikTok and ByteDance did not reply right away when The Post asked them for a statement.

If TikTok was banned in the US, app stores like Apple and Google would be fined if they kept selling it.

The TikTok app would also no longer be able to be updated on phones in the US. This would mean that it would no longer work with the newest versions of iOS and Android.

The app is already on millions of phones in the US, but if the bill passes, internet service providers will have to block access to TikTok, according to the tech blog Lifehacker. This would make it impossible to use the platform, even if it’s already on a device.

Lifehacker said this is exactly how the Indian government blocked the app, saying it posed a threat to national security.