Trump Signs Executive Order That
Will Effectively Ban TikTok in the US China-based company ByteDance
is the parent company of TikTok. The order, barring U.S. companies from doing
business with ByteDance, is set to go into effect in
45 days if TikTok is not sold to an American company. Microsoft announced earlier this
week that it was negotiating a purchase
of the popular video sharing app, a deal
with a potential worth of $30 billion. President Donald Trump's
executive order refers to
the risk posed by the China-
owned app as a "national emergency." The Trump administration has accused
ByteDance of using TikTok to acquire
"vast swaths" of personal information from U.S. users. Trump's order says that acquisition
of this information "threatens to allow"
the government of China to track U.S. users. TikTok responded to the
move, saying it was "shocked." TikTok Statement, via NBC News