Donald Trump announced the setting of a redemption deadline for the Chinese social network.
The offensive against the teenage favorite app continues. Yesterday, Thursday August 6, Donald Trump signed a decree prohibiting in 45 days any transaction with ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok. What does this really mean? After announcing that Tiktok was going to be totally and immediately banned on American soil, on July 31, Trump backed down by demanding the redemption of the application by any American digital giant by September 15, i.e. in 45 days. Following this suggestion of a forced acquisition, the Microsoft group has positioned itself in talks with Bytedance, but the negotiations will be difficult.
Espionage charges
After telecoms giant Huawei, it is now Tiktok to be accused of espionage by the US president. A real juggernaut among 15-25 year olds, the application has been downloaded nearly 2 billion times since its launch in 2016. This success story is disturbing, and especially Trump (currently in the race for his re-election) who is there. sees this as a risk for American supremacy in the digital domain. For him, the application would allow Beijing to capture the personal data of 50 million Americans, but all without any proof.
China finally responded to its accusations through Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wengbin at a press conference. "The United States is conducting arbitrary political manipulation and repression, which can only lead to its own moral decline and damage to its image."
Tiktokers are mobilizing
Since the announcement of the start of an offensive against the TikTok app by the United States, hundreds of users around the world have mobilized to try to interfere in the decisions. Some even wrote to the White House! Between fun and tears, in a matter of hours, the app filled with messages for Donald Trump. As always, tiktokers got creative.