Latest Order by Trump concludes investigation for national security, the latest action against the video-sharing app – TikTok
An order was issued late on Friday by Donald Trump calling out TikTok’s owner ByteDance to divest its U.S. operations. A 90-day deadline was set for compliance for the transaction to be completed. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the event, and here’s what its implication is.
TikTok has come under the radar of the United States surrounding concerns around national security. These claims are made on the basis of possible data sharing with Chinese authorities or companies, following the Indian TikTok ban. Trump had even issued an executive order just last week, saying it would ban U.S. transactions with ByteDance and WeChat in 45 days, escalating concerns about the global tech economy.
Trump’s Order Sets Deadline for TikTok Sale
In this order, Trump asked ByteDance to take action that impairs the national security of America ordering ByteDance to sell off any assets that support its operation of TikTok without the borders of the United States. The Trump administration has set out on a task to purge “untrusted” and “controversial security”-based apps. It is not surprising that most of these are China-based companies (Remember Huawei?).
Compared to the earlier order, TikTok now has some more time, till around November 12 to work out its operations. Earlier, it was supposed to end around September 20. Microsoft Corp was said to be interested in buying TikTok’s American operations but there are expected to be many other potential buyers interested. Nevertheless, Trump had said that he would ban TikTok on September 15, raising concerns over a political fallout.
According to the latest order, TikTok would also have to destroy all data of American users, including data from Musical.ly. For those unaware, ByteDance had acquired Musical.ly back in 2017, merging it with TikTok.
