Trump signs executive order banning TikTok in 45 days

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Caitlin McFall - FOXBusiness




President Trump issued an executive order Thursday night that would see the social media platform TikTok banned within 45 days.

TikTok is a video sharing mobile application, owned by ByteDance Ltd., that the Trump administration has deemed a national security threat on the basis that the app has been gathering data that could potentially be shared with the government of China.

“TikTok automatically gathers vast swaths of information from its users, including internet and other network activity information such as location data and browsing and search history,” the executive order said.

“This data threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) access to Americans’ personal and propietrary information – potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information and blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”

The U.S. ban puts pressure on the China-based company to sell the app’s U.S. platform – Microsoft is reportedly a leading contender, but the deal will be closely monitored by the Trump administration.

"If Microsoft or any U.S. company buys TikTok this will be carefully monitored to make sure there is absolutely no Chinese involvement in the new company," said one Wall Street executive with knowledge of the matter told Fox Business.

Trump granted a 45-day easement for any company currently working with TikTok to end their business dealings, or face sanctions after the September deadline.

The president signed an additional executive order Thursday night, partially banning WeChat, a Chinese owned social media platform that facilitates messaging, social media and payment transactions.

The Thursday night order bans financial transactions with their parent company Tencent, one of China’s largest companies with more than billion people utilizing WeChat a month.

"The United States must take aggressive action against the owner of WeChat to protect our national security,” the executive order said Thursday night.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday: “We want to see untrusted Chinese apps removed from us app stores.

“President Trump has mentioned impending action on TikTok, and for good reason.”

“With parent companies based in China apps like Tiktok, WeChat and others are significant threats to personal data of American citizens, not to mention tools for CCP content censorship,” he added.

[lost in melb.]

Gloves are off, China

[FBD]

RIP ccp finances

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Nicolas Vega - New York Post




TikTok has threatened legal action following President Trump’s late-night executive order banning transactions beginning in 45 days between American firms and the Chinese parent company of the popular social media app.

In an unsigned blog posted on its website, TikTok said that it was “shocked” by the president’s order, which it said was “issued without any due process.”

“For nearly a year, we have sought to engage with the US government in good faith to provide a constructive solution to the concerns that have been expressed.

“What we encountered instead was that the Administration paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses,” the company said.

Trump’s executive order began a 45-day countdown clock for TikTok to find an American company to purchase its US business, or find itself banned from American shores.

The app may have been used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party, and the United States “must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security,” Trump said in the order.

TikTok in its post says that it “has never shared user data with the Chinese government, nor censored content at its request.”

It argues that Trump’s order “risks undermining global businesses’ trust in the United States’ commitment to the rule of law” as well as “sets a dangerous precedent for the concept of free expression in open markets.”

Microsoft confirmed earlier this week that it is in discussions with TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company ByteDance over a potential acquisition, which it said it is looking to accomplish within the 45-day timeframe.

Trump said this week that he does not mind if Microsoft or another company acquires the popular video app, so long as they are “a big company, a secure company, a very American company.”

ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming told employees in an email Tuesday that a forced sale is “unreasonable,” and said the US wants to see TikTok fail.

“[A sale] is not their goal, or even what they want,” he wrote. “Their real objective is to achieve a comprehensive ban.”

[FBD]

TikTok in its post says that it “has never shared user data with the Chinese government, nor censored content at its request.”

[lost in melb.]

Well, they may not have. Yet.


I think this is only partly about national security. Mostly US letting China know who's still boss

[lost in melb.]

P.s. watch for an upTik in arbitrary detention of internationals in China

[KevinD]

I've never used Tiktok. Imho, government employees (yes, including Trump) shouldn't be using any social media directly. Folks are savvy enough to find said person's website if they want to purview comments. I had thought Tiktok was a video hosting media, where you share with select friends. If no, I dunno, and dont care.
China can go get fucked imho. When they allow their citizens full internet access, then they can squawk about it.

[FBD]

I've never used Tiktok. Imho, government employees (yes, including Trump) shouldn't be using any social media directly. Folks are savvy enough to find said person's website if they want to purview comments. I had thought Tiktok was a video hosting media, where you share with select friends. If no, I dunno, and dont care.
China can go get fucked imho. When they allow their citizens full internet access, then they can squawk about it.

literally every bit of video that goes through tiktok, CCP gets a copy of. there's a reason it was banned on government devices a while ago. but this is much more about eliminating the funding for the media assault on the election than tiktok videos.