Trump Slated to "Ban" TikTok in the U.S. Today

TikTok is not having or going to have a fun weekend in the U.S. Lat night local time, it was reported that Microsoft was planning to buy it but now things have turned for the worst.

UPDATE: Microsoft has confirmed that they are in talks to buy TikTok in the US. In a blog statement, the tech giant has said that they will keep working with the US government on that proposed deal and hopes the talks will conclude by September 15th.

Microsoft plans to not only buy TikTok in the US but also Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

We are yet to know what happens to other countries that still have TikTok such as Africa and Europe. TikTok already has quietly made London its main hub in European.

Microsoft will probably offer other American investors to get involved in the acquisition.

Donald Trump told reporters aboard the Air Force One that he’s banning TikTok. Donald was travelling to Tampa and he has panned to take action against the app popular among Gen Z and millennials as soon as Saturday.

“As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “Soon. Immediately. I mean essentially immediately.”

“I will sign the document tomorrow,” he said..

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) August 1, 2020

He added that he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order to ban TikToik in the country.

The U.S president made it clear that he was not in favour of a deal that would let a U.S company buy TikTok’s American operations.

POTUS made clear he is against proposed spinoff of Tik Tok with a resale to Microsoft or another company.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 1, 2020

Trump on TikTok via @davidcloudlat pic.twitter.com/8Ya3eeE3qV

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) August 1, 2020

This intended ban could follow up on Indian and Australia who are also planning to ban the app. Both India and Australia are blocking the app at the network level which cuts off communication between the targetted servers and users in the said country.

This method would be hard to implement in the U.S as the app is consumer-facing unlike Huawei and ZTE which the US administration cracked down on last year.

The problem would come from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). They handle mergers and investments involving non-US companies. Last year, they opened security investigations on TikTok and if they decide that Chinese ownership of the app – that could bring a lot of trouble.

It doesn’t matter what he says. He cannot legally “terminate” a company. https://t.co/ES4AnbErln

— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) August 1, 2020

TikTok could be forced to restructure and separate its US presence from its Chinese one, or even make ByteDance sell off Musical.ly.

The U.S administration could deplatform the app by adding it in an entity list(similar to Huawei method ) thereby making Google and Apple remove TikTok form its respective app stores.

What would a U.S. ban look like? It depends how it is implemented, but U.S. enterprises would likely quickly break off relationships. There would be no censorship, but TikTok would disappear from Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Then AWS would wind down ByteDance as a customer. https://t.co/fo87n2pLsz

— Daniel Sinclair (@_DanielSinclair) August 1, 2020

“They could sanction them, but usually the sanction is tied to trade violations or espionage or proliferation or intellectual property theft. You can’t just do it because you’re mad at a company,” said James Lewis, director of technology policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies while speaking to the Verge.

https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1289293539151511552

Trump threatened to ban TikTok via Executive Order, so upping all of what @alexstamos said below with some adds.

1. An EO likely won’t have an enforcement mechanism.

2. We need a federal data protection standard.

3. We can have concerns of security & banning apps at same time. https://t.co/83HDzWJyHq

— Graham Brookie (@GrahamBrookie) August 1, 2020

This increased dislike by Trump comes after his re-election campaign in Tulsa was ruined by TikTok teens and K-Pop stans who tanked it by inflating the attendance expectations.

Dude is still fuming about Tulsa and those meddling kids https://t.co/qzC8KGvzM7

— thaddeus e. grugq thegrugq@infosec.exchange (@thegrugq) August 1, 2020

The news of the ban is now being discussed on TikTok group chats with everyone encouraging their fans to follow them on other social networks.

https://twitter.com/TaylorLorenz/status/1289398350698016770

https://twitter.com/juliettestacyy/status/1289442994026770432

a juicy thread of creators responding to the TikTok ban 👇

kicking it off with the baddest bleep on the platform: Addison Rae [@whoisaddison] pic.twitter.com/zWBGhyWxZQ

— Alice Ophelia (@iamaliceophelia) August 1, 2020

https://twitter.com/elijahdaniel/status/1289441608228724736

hope to god tiktok survives and microsoft acquires.

tiktok unlocks so much creativity from the average person. amazing creative tool, best follower-graph-breaking algorithm, surprisingly wholesome / cause-driven community, beautiful music integration.

don't go bb 🥺

— bloomy btw 🌸 (@yungcontent) August 1, 2020

feel for all of tiktok's newer employees and employees-to-be if trump really shuts this shit down. they've been hiring like crazy the past year and just pledged on tues that they'd employ 10,000 more americans in 3 yrs. unprecedented unprecedented times.

— bloomy btw 🌸 (@yungcontent) August 1, 2020

https://twitter.com/TaylorLorenz/status/1289419513327497216

https://twitter.com/loudmouthjulia/status/1289424192195170306

#tiktokban This is what makes me most sad. I love seeing how young people have used #TikTok to be activists, create community, express themselves, be ridiculous, whatever, they're making f'ing ART. @TaylorLorenz https://t.co/QaBL53wXxb

— Kim Foster (@KimintheWest) August 1, 2020

https://twitter.com/TaylorLorenz/status/1289421886804254720

The potential ban on Tiktok is a harsh reminder that we're all living on rented land

Creators not only need to diversify their social channels, but take ownership over their career by starting a business so they're not depending their income on something that could be gone tmr

— Jason Wong 🐤 (@EggrolI) August 1, 2020

Here are some reactions from Twitter

How people are reacting to TikTok ban in the US almost seems like a deja vu of how people reacted when it was banned in India

— Vikas SN (@tsuvik) August 1, 2020

Banning an app like TikTok, which millions of Americans use to communicate with each other, is a danger to free expression and technologically impractical. https://t.co/ZbN7f2TOwF

— ACLU (@ACLU) August 1, 2020

people who are “happy” tiktok is getting banned think they have a PHD in maturity… and they’re acting like they don’t spend 8 hours a day on it 💀

— SNARKYMARKY (@snarkeigh) August 1, 2020

https://twitter.com/OhMyGodExposeU/status/1289415603262861312

https://twitter.com/ramen_girl__/status/1289405701354209281

https://twitter.com/dougmar_/status/1289396126005825536

if tiktok gets banned i’m losing my job 💔 my moms gonna be so sad

— sarah lugor! (@sarahlugor) August 1, 2020

https://twitter.com/dougmar_/status/1289396812114092032

We never deserved Tiktok

— Ej Dickson (@ejdickson) August 1, 2020

https://twitter.com/kevinroose/status/1289390524755922944

Already been taught. VPN instructions for how to watch Friends when it went off Netflix were all over TikTok!

— Joanna Stern (@JoannaStern) August 1, 2020

https://twitter.com/loudmouthjulia/status/1289408759979106304

This TikTok ban is gonna piss off many teens, especially the underage ones, many of which probably won’t vote for Trump this fall

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) August 1, 2020

https://twitter.com/ProfJeffJarviss/status/1289402946057146368

https://twitter.com/rachel/status/1289410966136864770

Tik Tok ban creates another news cycle that’s not coronavirus or economy. Which is the intent.

— Alex Kantrowitz (@Kantrowitz) August 1, 2020

Get ready for every TikTok to be creators begging fans to follow them on Triller, YouTube, Airbnb, Tinder…

— Josh Constine 📶🔥 (@JoshConstine) August 1, 2020