When is TikTok getting banned in America?
The United States is planning to ban short video app TikTok on 15 September unless an American company buys it, according to President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is pressuring Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, to sell the application to an American company. If a deal is not reached, the U.S. president has threatened to ban the short video app in the United States as of 15 September. Trump’s administration has previously accused TikTok of providing data on its users to the Chinese government.
Microsoft is currently in talks with ByteDance to buy 30 percent of the company, which would only include its U.S. operations, but Trump is pushing for a complete purchase that would see Microsoft buy up 100 percent of TikTok with negotiations ongoing.
Trump wants Microsoft to own all operations
“We had a great conversation with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. He called me to see how I felt about it. I told him look, it can’t be controlled for security reasons by China. It’s too big, too invasive. It can’t be. I don’t mind whether it’s Microsoft or somebody else, a big company... an American company buys it. It is probably easier to buy the whole thing rather than buying 30 percent,” Trump told reporters.
“I said how do you buy only 30 percent? Who is going to get the name, the name is hot. The brand is hot. Who’s going to get the name and who is going to get that when it’s owned by two different companies. So, my personal opinion was, you probably better off buying the whole thing rather than buying 30 percent. I think buying 30 percent is complicated and I suggested that he can go ahead. He can try,” added Trump.
Microsoft and ByteDance have confirmed that they are in talks and the U.S. company is now interested in purchasing TikTok services in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which would leave Microsoft as the sole owner and operator of TikTok in those markets.