Donald Trump Announces Plan To Ban TikTok In The United States
"As far as TikTok is concerned, we're banning them from the United States"
President Trump has announced that he will be looking to ban TikTok in the United States as early as this weekend.
While on board Air Force One, Donald Trump announced to reporters that he would be looking to ban TikTok from operating in the U.S.
BREAKING: Trump tells reporters aboard Air Force One he is banning TikTok
— Josh Lederman (@JoshNBCNews) August 1, 2020
ABOARD AF1 – Potus says he plans to terminate the social media platform Tik-Tok in the US using presidential authority.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 1, 2020
Trump told reporters that he could take action against the app as soon as this weekend, using an executive order, or other powers.
Pool report via main print pooler David Cloud/LAT pic.twitter.com/RDV8LjnLLQ
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 1, 2020
TikTok is owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance, and the administration has growing concerns about the personal data from millions of TikTok users being accessed by the Chinese government. TikTok has repeatedly denied that it a risk.
The fate of the app is still up in the air, with reports that ByteDance may agree to divest the US operations of TikTok completely, allowing Microsoft to take over the app and data control in the United States. But other reports say that Trump would prefer to ban the app outright rather than force the handover.
TikTok’s U.S general manager Vanessa Pappas released a video in response to the Trump news, saying that the app was ‘not planning on going anywhere’.
#TikTok US General Manager Vanessa Pappas reacts to possible shut down in the country by Donald Trump:
“We’re not planning on going anywhere.”
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) August 1, 2020