Microsoft is currently in talk to potentially purchase the Chinese-owned TikTok. The move comes as the White House is placing extra attention on the app with President Trump even signaling that he would outright ban it within the United States.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese internet company with ties to the government. The fear is that data collected from the app is potentially being sent to the Chinese government.
A recent report indicates that President Trump was ready to announce an executive order that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations.
“We’re looking at TikTok, we may be banning TikTok,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Friday before heading to Florida. “We may be doing some other things. There’s a couple of options. But a lot of things are happening, so we’ll see what happens. But we are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok.”
We are unclear on how deep the talks between ByteDance and Microsoft are, but any deal between the two would completely alter the ownership of the mobile app. The move could also alleviate the pressure being placed on it from the U.S. government, even as TikTok lobbyists continue to push members of Congress to not fear the children’s dancing app.
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