President Donald Trump declared that some action would be taken to ban the popular social-networking site TikTok by rejecting a deal in the works for Microsoft to buy the app from their Chine parent company.
“As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump stated to reporters on their way back to Florida on Air Force One.
With growing fears that the China-based company could potentially become a spy front, Trump insisted that he could use emergency economic powers or even an executive order to shut it down asserting that “it’s going to be signed tomorrow.”
The China-based company with over 80 million daily active users rushed to offer the Trump admission a last-minute deal to prevent a ban of the app. Under this new deal, the company will forsake all shares of the local company shares, and turn over 100 percent control of the company to the tech mogul Mircosoft. The terms of this deal seem unclear if shareholders from the US ByteDance investors can retain minority stakes of the new business.
China has long banned US-based social media companies from their software including Facebook and Twitter. With relations quickly falling apart with India, they already banned the app and dozens more.
“I don’t think TikTok is ‘uniquely dangerous’, but it is a Chinese app with tens of millions of US users so it stands out in that regard,” Balaji S. Srinivasan, a tech investor, was quoted saying to The Post. “The logic of banning them may well be extended to other apps like WeChat.”-which is also a Chinese based app.
The following Saturday morning TikTok US general manager delivered a statement that begins to set a defiant tone to the public. “We’re not planning on going anywhere,” said General Manager Vanessa Pappas. “TikTok is a home for creators and artists to express themselves, their ideas, and connect with others across different backgrounds and we are so proud of all the various communities that call TikTok their home.”
