US President Trump sees Tiktok as a threat to national security. He calls for the US to participate in the Chinese app. As the negotiations drag on, the government in Washington is now announcing severe consequences. The chat service WeChat is also affected.
The administration of US President Donald Trump is increasing the pressure in the dispute over the future of the popular video app Tiktok. As of Sunday, it should no longer be possible in the USA to download Tiktok and the WeChat chat service from the Google and Apple app stores, according to a message from the Department of Commerce. Tiktok will also no longer work for users in the USA from November 12th, while this should be the case for WeChat from Sunday.
However, Trump has set a deadline of November 12 within which national security concerns can still be allayed, said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. The US government describes the Tiktok app from the Chinese company Bytedance as a security risk on the grounds that Chinese authorities could get data from Americans. Tiktok and Bytedance deny this.
Trump had previously asked the owner Bytedance to sell the US branch of the video platform. Specifically, the US companies Oracle and WalMart as well as the US shareholders of Bytedance are to take over at least 60 percent of TikTok. If the deal goes like this, ByteDance insiders want to bring the platform, then called TikTok Global, to the US stock exchange. China's stance on the proposal is still completely unclear. According to ByteDance, the government in Beijing has to give its approval just like Trump.
Microsoft had previously negotiated a purchase of the Tiktok business in the US and other countries. A few days ago, however, the software giant announced that Bytedance had rejected its offer.
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