Trump Said He Plans To Ban TikTok From The US
President Trump on Friday said he plans to ban the popular app TikTok from operating in the US.
Traveling aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters he could take action as soon as Saturday.
“As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” he said according to a pool report.
Trump has been threatening to ban the popular video-sharing app citing national security concerns that its parent company, Chinese-owned ByteDance, could be misusing American consumer information.
When asked on Fox News earlier this month whether Americans should download TikTok on their phones, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “Only if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”
ByteDance has said that the company stores user data entirely in the US and Singapore and that it does not have to send user data to China. But skeptics point to a 2017 law in China that requires Chinese companies to comply with government requests for intelligence gathering.
A US committee on foreign investment opened a national security review into ByteDance last year.
Trump on Friday said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order to ban the app in the United States, though it is not immediately clear how that would work.
The New York Times on Friday reported that Microsoft and other companies are in talks to buy TikTok. However, Trump told reporters on Air Force One he was not in favor a US company buying the app’s American operations.
TikTok is evolved from another popular app Musical.ly, which ByteDance bought in 2017.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates and follow BuzzFeed News on Twitter.
President Trump on Friday said he plans to ban the popular app TikTok from operating in the US. Traveling aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters he could take action as soon as Saturday. “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” he said according…
