Trump says US will ban Chinese app TikTok

President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States will ban TikTok, the Chinese video-sharing app that is facing an international ostracism over national security concerns after it was shuttered by India last month, along with 58 others that were followed by many more.

TikTok is also reported to be in talks to sell itself to Microsoft or other companies.

“As far as TikTok is concerned we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump told reporters. adding he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order.

“Well, I have that authority. I can do it with an executive order or that,” he said referring to emergency economic powers.

Earlier in the day, he had said he was weighing other “options”. ByteDance, the parent company could be forced to divest TikTok by the powerful Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the New York Times reported Friday. Negotiations are under way.

The president could also issue an executive order invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which he referred to, to bar certain apps, such as TikTok, from American apps stores.

Or, he could add TikTok’s parent company to an “entity list” barring it from buying Americans products without a license.

The decision is expected over the weekend.

The Trump administration has been weighing some kind on action against Chinese apps, as stated earlier by the president and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as a part of administration’s broader effort to force the Chinese government to “change their behavior”.

Among other thing, the Trump administration has led a growing international boycott of Chinese telecommunications firms Huawei and ZTE, calling them a national security threat. It has also announced a slew of sanctions and trade restrictions over Tibet, Hong Kong and Uighurs of Xinjiang province.

HT