US considers banning TikTok; Microsoft in line for acquiring the app's US operations
In what comes as a major blow to TikTok and with an extension to China, the United States of America is planning to ban the video-sharing app. President Donald Trump has made his intentions clear while saying, "We are looking at TikTok, we may be banning TikTok. We may be doing some other things, we have a couple of options… But we are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok." Trump's latest comments have come after reports surfaced that Microsoft is planning to buy ByteDance 's TikTok.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said, early July, that the US was planning action against TikTok because of the threat it poses to user privacy.
Several US politicians have constantly criticised TikTok which is owned by Beijing based ByteDance. It has long been tipped as a ‘threat to national security’.
This is also partly due to the deteriorating ties between the United States and China.
India has already banned TikTok, among over 100 Chinese Apps that violated user privacy and data security norms.
Microsoft in talks of buying TikTok
In a major development, tech giants Microsoft is in talks to buy the video-sharing app TikTok’s operations in the United States. US media has reported that a deal would give the software company a popular social media service and relieve US government pressure on the Chinese owner ByteDance.
