U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants to take action to ban TikTok, a popular Chinese-owned video app that has been a source of national security and censorship concerns.
U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants to take action to ban TikTok, a popular Chinese-owned video app that has been a source of national security and censorship concerns.
The threat comes as Microsoft Corp. is in advanced talks to buy the Chinese app, owned by ByteDance Ltd., according to a person familiar with the discussions who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity to the negotiations. Microsoft declined to comment.
It’s not clear whether Trump would accept a divestment as a concession.
But there have been reports of U.S. tech giants and financial firms being interested in buying or investing in TikTok as the Trump administration sets its sights on the app.
Questions and answers about what’s at stake:
What’s TikTok?
ByteDance launched TikTok in 2017 before buying Musical.ly — a video service popular with teens in Canada, the U.S. and Europe — and combined the two. A twin service, Douyin, is available for Chinese users.
TikTok’s fun, goofy videos and ease of use have made it immensely popular, and U.S. tech giants like Facebook and Snapchat see it as a competitive threat.
It has said it has tens of millions of users in the U.S. and hundreds of millions globally.