United States President Donald Trump said that he will announce a decision ordering China’s ByteDance Ltd. to divest its ownership of the music-video app TikTok, which is popular with U.S. teens, according to sources familiar to this matter.
According to a report of Bloomberg, the U.S. government has been investigating potential national security risks due to the company’s control of the app, and President Trump’s decision could be announced as soon as Friday (US time; Saturday in Manila).
The White House said Friday, “We are looking at TikTok. We may be banning TikTok. We are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok.”
It may be recalled that Bytedance bought Musical.ly Inc. in 2017 and merged it with TikTok. As the app’s popularity grew, U.S. officials became more concerned about the potential for the Chinese government to use the app to gain data on U.S. citizens. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.began a review of the purchase in the fall of 2019 according to some reports. President Trump, earlier this month, said that he was considering the ban on TikTok as a way to retaliate against China for its handling of the coronavirus. TikTok, at present, has offices in Los Angeles, California.