Trump Slated to “Ban” TikTok in the U.S. Today

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TikTok

TikTokTikTok 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:ย 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 alsoย 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 probablyย 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.

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.

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 theย Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). They handleย 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.

TikTok could be forced to restructure andย 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.

โ€œThey could sanction them, but usually the sanction is tied to trade violations or espionage or proliferation or intellectual property theft. You canโ€™t just do it because youโ€™re mad at a company,โ€ saidย James Lewis, director of technology policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies while speaking to the Verge.

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.

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.

Here are some reactions from Twitter

This is a developing story..keep refreshing for new updates