Donald Trump has given Americans a deadline to stop doing business with TikTok’s parent company.
San Francisco, United States:
PrIdentity Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated his demand for part of the action of any sale of TikTok’s US operations for forcing such a deal.
TikTok has been at the center of a diplomatic storm between Washington and Beijing, and Trump has given Americans a deadline to stop doing business with TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, effectively forcing the app to sell to an American company.
“Well, I told them they have until September 15 to make a deal; after that we shut it down in this country,” Trump told reporters.
“And I said the United States needs to be compensated – well compensated – because we are the ones making it possible, and therefore we should be compensated.”
Critics have criticized Trump’s call for the US government to get a share of the deal, saying it appears unconstitutional and akin to extortion.
The owner of the popular TikTok video app has vowed to “strictly adhere” to the new export rules in China, which could potentially complicate the sale of the company as Trump demands.
New Chinese Rules
China’s Ministry of Commerce last week released new rules that added “civilian use” to a list of export-restricted technologies.
The move marked the first time that China has adjusted its list of technologies subject to export bans or restrictions since 2008, adding 23 new items.
The new regulations could make it harder for ByteDance to sell the wildly popular video app, which features snippets of everything from dance routines and hair dye tutorials to jokes about everyday life and politics.
Walmart has confirmed its alliance with Microsoft in negotiations to buy TikTok. Oracle would also be interested in TikTok.
CEO Kevin Mayer left the company last week, days after TikTok filed a lawsuit against the US government’s crackdown.
TikTok – which has been downloaded 175 million times in the United States and over a billion times worldwide – argued in the lawsuit that Trump’s order was a misuse of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act because the platform is not “unusual and extraordinary threat.”
Trump says TikTok could be used by China to track the locations of federal employees, build up files on people for blackmail purposes, and conduct corporate espionage.
TikTok – used by up to a billion people around the world to create original, short videos on their cellphones – has repeatedly denied sharing data with Beijing.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
