The tech war between United States and China escalates as Donald Trump threatens to block the wildly popular app to force the parent company to divest the ownership to domestic buyer.
- August 2, 2020
AceShowbiz - Donald Trump has threatened to ban social media platform TikTok from U.S. operations.
On Friday (31Jul20), the President stated that he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order to ban the Chinese-owned company from the country as soon as Saturday.
According to USA Today, the government has been investigating the app as a potential national security risk, and Trump has ordered ByteDance, the app's parent company, to exit its Chinese ownership or risk being blacklisted in America.
Members of the U.S. Navy were also ordered to delete TikTok from government devices, with other government officials also banned from using the app.
Concerns have arisen over the app's ability to gain personal data from phones and smart devices, after many users found that TikTok had been monitoring them without their knowledge.
The platform has gained a star following in recent months, with the likes of Cameron Diaz, The Weeknd, and Jason Derulo - who claims to earn over $75,000 (£60,000) for each of his videos on the site - all making use of it.
