On Friday, Trump issued an executive order adding to his first executive order – which was issued on August 6th – banning TikTok. The latest instalment gives ByteDance 90 days (instead of the previous 45 days) to sell its US wing of TikTok due to fears surrounding privacy and national security in the White House.
Previously, ByteDance had until September 20th until all US transactions with the Chinese technology company were blocked and punishable by law. Now they have until November 12th. Since Microsoft’s talks to potentially purchase TikTok in the US were set to end on September 15th anyway, it’s unclear whether the newest order will affect sales, but it definitely gives Twitter a little bit of legroom to broach a potential collaboration (aka Vine 2.0).
The new order does have some more information in it, though, which might help to appease the myriad tech companies who complained to the white house last week about a lack of clarity in the previous order: ByteDance must destroy any TikTok data from US users, as well as any data collected from TikTok precursor app Musical.ly (which was bought by ByteDance in 2017), and report to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States once all the data has been destroyed, reports The Verge.
Trump has also claimed that he “could exert pressure on more Chinese companies such as technology giant Alibaba,” according to Reuters. At a news conference on Saturday, the President was asked whether there were other particular China-owned companies he was considering a ban on. He responded by saying, “Well, we’re looking at other things, yes”.
In the meantime, Trump has begun attempting to promote TikTok copycats (or potential replacements) by getting himself a verified account on Triller, another short-form video-sharing app. As of Saturday evening, Reuters reports that Trump’s account has 300 000 followers and three short videos.
The Trump-TikTok tensions are ever-increasing and new instalments are unfolding by the hour and, at this point, it truly feels like it could swing either way.
