TikTok ban: US to take a call soon

The White House indicated on Wednesday that a decision on Chinese mobile applications, including TikTok, could be taken within weeks and not months.

"I do not think there is any self-imposed deadline for action, but I think we are looking at weeks, not months," White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters aboard Air Force One, flying with President Donald Trump form Atlanta.

"There are a number of administration officials who are looking at the national security risk as it relates to TikTok, WeChat and other apps that have the potential for national security exposure, specifically as it relates to the gathering of information on American citizens by a foreign adversary," Meadows said.

The move to ban TikTok in the US has suddenly gained momentum after India's decision in this regard last month.

"They (Indians) made the decision that they were going to pull 50 or so Chinese applications off the systems that were operating inside India. They did not do that because the United States told them to. They did it because they could see the threat to the Indian people from the Chinese Communist Party," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Economic Club of New York in a virtual exchange.

Meanwhile, Expressing concern over TikTok's censorship of user content to advance the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) foreign policy aims, a set of 25 US Congressmen and Congresswomen have urged President Donald Trump to "take decisive action to protect the American people's privacy and safety".