US President Donald Trump has provided signed an executive order which has provided a window of just 45 days to all US citizens to carry out deals with ByteDance, the China-based parent company of TikTok.
A ban will be at the place after 45 days which will restrict any US entity or individual to carry out any association with the parent company of the viral short video sharing platform.
The executive order comes as Microsoft is considering buying the US wing of TikTok’s operations from ByteDance and has set a 45-day timeline for the deal, in a move that Trump has backed.
Reports suggest that Mr. Trump aims to either force a sale to a US company or lead to a ban on the app in the US. The order deemed TikTok a “threat” to national security and cited automatic data collection by the service.
Trump told reporters during his interaction in the White House that, without a sale to a “secure” US company, TikTok “will be out of business in the United States.” Trump threatened last week to ban the app outright until the Microsoft option emerged.
The has president also insisted the deal with Microsoft should lead to some kind of benefit to the US Treasury, without offering more details, and raising eyebrows in Washington.
US Military has already banned TikTok’s use and Congress is passing legislation to ban federal workers from downloading it onto their official devices.
Trump also signed a second executive order with similar rules for another Chinese app, WeChat which is very popular in China’s mainland and other countries but has a limited audience in the US.
TikTok has always maintained a stance that it does not officially operate in mainland China and has insisted that while it has a large operation in Beijing it has a US chief executive and is strongly tied to the country.
