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On Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he was banning China’s social media platform TikTok in the United States as his “presidential authority.”
“As far as TikTok is concerned, we are banning them in the United States,” Trump told reporters Friday, according to a Los Angeles Times report, David Cloud.
Trump said he planned to take action “as soon as Saturday.”
According to the group’s report, Trump claimed he had the “power” to ban TikTok “with one executive order or another.” However, it is known what authority it has to absolutely prohibit application in the United States.
White House officials responded to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Trump’s management has publicly threatened to ban TikTok since early July, raising considerations about the application’s links to China and foreign government access to user knowledge and content moderation through its parent company, ByteDance. TikTok has insisted that he will never provide any knowledge if requested through the Chinese government.
Trump’s joke to Friday night comes hours after the reports were released. Trump planned to include an executive order ordering TikTok’s parent company to “disconnect” from viral operations in the United States. According to a 1988 law, Trump has the strength to block foreign industry deals involving U.S. corporations if he considers it a national security risk. Trump has already used authority twice to block deals in which Chinese and Singaporean corporations were about to take over U.S.-based corporations.
Microsoft has temporarily become a potential customer of TikTok’s U.S. operations. The company is said to be in “advanced conversations” about the sale, which “may be only the potential legal demand situations and negative public reactions that might have occurred if the hugely popular app had been ejected from millions of U.S. smartphones.” Wall Street Journal reported.
It is known how TikTok or ByteDance would respond to any of the president’s directives, however, the publication of an executive order would constitute an escalation of the Trump administration’s attacks on TikTok and other Chinese-generation companies.
In a pre-Business Insider session, a representative of TikTok said the company had not commented on “rumors or speculation” and was “confident in TikTok’s long-term success.”
“Hundreds of millions of other people come to TikTok to entertain and connect, adding our networked paintings of creators and artists who build livelihoods from the platform,” TikTok said in his statement. “We are motivated through your work and creativity, and we are committed to protecting your privacy and safety as we continue to paint to bring joy to meaningful families and careers for those who believe in our platform.
TikTok arrived in the United States in 2018 and has since discovered a life-filled and developing base of 80 million users. The app, which has more than 2.3 billion downloads worldwide, recently valued between $30 billion and $50 billion.
TikTok’s relations with China have attracted more attention in recent months, as the president and administration officials said they were banning implementation. Trump said a ban would be a way to punish China for its role in the coronavirus pandemic, while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited national security concerns.
The resulting uncertainty in TikTok’s long-term would have led ByteDance executives and investors to explore opportunities for a ban in the U.S. Earlier this month, a US investor organization of ByteDance, which added Sequoia Capital and General Atlantic, was contemplating buying a majority stake in TikTok, according to The Information. But The Information reported Friday that the talks had failed due to fears that such an acquisition would “not pass through the Trump administration.”