In yet another major blow for TikTok, US President Donald Trump has issued an executive order that bans all transactions with TikTok’s parent company – ByteDance – within 45 days if the social media sensation’s US operations are not sold to a US-based company. The countdown goes into effect today, and starting September 20, any US entity will be prohibited from doing transactions with ByteDance if the US operations of TikTok are not sold to an American company.

https://twitter.com/hunterw/status/1291540881737232384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Trump’s executive order prohibits “any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd. (a.k.a. Zìjié Tiàodòng), Beijing, China, or its subsidiaries, in which any such company has any interest.” Just a few days ago, Trump gave ByteDance a September 15 deadline to either sell TikTok’s US operations to a US-based company or risk getting shut down in the US.

The executive order claims that TikTok stores “vast swaths of information from its users” that might “allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information”, and also targets the content censorship and the app’s potential to be used for disinformation campaigns. As for parties in the viral social media app, Microsoft has confirmed that it is in talks to buy TikTok’s US operations and aims to conclude the discussions by September 15.

Source: White House