Trump Wants To Ban TikTok In The United States | TheRichest.com
On Air Force One on Friday, President Donald Trump said he intended to immediately ban TikTok, a Chinese short-form video-sharing social networking service. “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump told reporters.
The video app, which has been the subject of national security and censorship concerns, is owned by ByteDance. Recently, there have been rumors that Microsoft was negotiating a buyout of the app. Trump said has was able to use emergency economic powers or an executive order to ban the app, stating, “I have that authority.”
On Saturday, ByteDance had reportedly agreed to divest US operations of TikTok, allowing Microsoft to run the app in the US. It is still unclear if the White House would accept this agreement. Other tech companies have also purportedly expressed interest in buying the app.
TikTok issued a statement Friday stating, “While we do not comment on rumors or speculation, we are confident in the long-term success of TikTok.”
ByteDance, which is headquartered in Beijing and estimated to be worth over $100 billion, launched TikTok in 2017. The app has been a runaway success in the United States and has been perceived as a competitive threat by Facebook and Snapchat. In the past, ByteDance had raised concerns about the censorship of videos as well as the exploitation of user data by the Chinese government.
TikTok, which hired Kevin Mayer, the former chairman of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International, as CEO, says it doesn’t engage in censorship and refuses to share user data with the Chinese government. Meanwhile, the US military has banned staff from installing TikTok on government-issued phones.
The US has already attempted to ban other high-tech companies, like Huawei and ZTE, over security concerns. The Trump administration ordered that the US stop supporting equipment from the telecom providers on US networks, claiming China may have access to user data.
Other countries have also sought to ban TikTok. In July, India banned numerous Chinese apps, including TikTok, over privacy concerns. Meanwhile, Vanessa Pappas, the general manager of TikTok in the US, has stated that the video-sharing app is "here for the long run," adding that staff is building "the safest app."
Source: Hollywood Reporter
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