TikTok is a popular application that all ages indulge in amid the pandemic. However, The U.S Government has been so concerned that the Chinese Government may use it to get access to the information about Americans who often use TikTok. Let's sort why the U.S President Donald Trump wants to ban Tiktok in the country.

(Photo : Kon Karampelas)
iPhone displaying the TikTok app

Tiktok is 2020's busiest application that hosts short videos of teens, celebrities, or any age users who often dance or sing lip-sync to viral audio clips. TikTok has brought fun and silly moments to its users. 

What exactly is going on with TikTok? In recent days, The U.S. government is thinking of banning it from the United States.

The discussion of ban all starts with first; it is owned by a Chinese internet company ByteDance; second, China is increasingly in the sights of the Trump administration. Washington officials have been genuinely concerned about the chances of the Chinese government to get information about Americans who use TikTok because of the app's Chinese ownership. On the other hand, TikTok denied that Beijing influences the app.

The U.S. administration officials say that Chinese-owned companies impose a threat to national security because of the Chinese government's ability to access the system of several companies under local laws.

Similar concerns have been raised in the White House previously, such as Huawei and ZTE. These two Chinese companies make equipment for mobile phone networks. Now, TikTok is the newest front in this matter.

President Trump said that he is planning to ban the app through an executive order. The owner of the app is said to try to address that concern of the government by selling TikTok to other U.S. operations. 

The Trump administration has not been particular to how they might ban TikTok and the inclusion of "ban" they want to happen. The administration can use a law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to block foreign products from American app stores, or it could put the owner of the app on a list that prohibits American firms from selling goods without a license. 

According to N.Y. Times, the administration can also order the Chinese firm to spin off TikTok because if it emerged from ByteDance's 2017 acquisition of a lip-syncing app called Musical.ly.To avoid being ordered to do so, ByteDance could agree to sell TikTok voluntarily. The scenario happened before when a Chinese company had bought Grindr, the gay dating app, to sell it due to pressure from Trump administration.

TikTok tried to paint itself as an American brand in May when it hired Kevin Mayer, who formerly worked at Disney, to be TikTok's chief executive. The company highlights its American investors as well as hiring almost 1,000 employees in the U.S.

ByteDance was reported to offer the American operations of TikTok to end the Trump administration from banning the app. One of the companies it has talked to about buying is Microsoft. 

In the most recent report of Latin Post, Microsoft works to acquire TikTok. Besides, ByteDance discussed selling a majority stake of TikTok to American investors. However, the Trump administration seemed to reject the course of action.

Latest update: The Wall Street Journal reported that negotiations between ByteDance and Microsoft to buy the U.S. operations of TikTok are on hold. President Donald Trump threatened to bar TikTok and came out against the sale.

Microsoft Corp. paused negotiations to buy TikTok's U.S. operations after Trump said he opposed the deal according to people familiar with the matter.

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