TIME’S SHORT, TIKTOK
Feds ban app downloads starting Sunday
The clock is ticking on TikTok after the US Commerce Department issued an order Friday that will ban downloads of the wildly popular app starting Sunday, citing national security concerns.
The move will see Apple and Google blocked from offering the Chinese-owned social-media platform on their app stores, meaning that TikTok will not be able to add to its 100 millionstrong US user base beginning Sept. 20.
TikTok will not be removed from phones that already have the software downloaded, but there will be no way for the app to receive software updates.
Already top TikTokers, including dancer Charli D’Amelio, have announced to their followers that they’ll be using other social-media platforms.
The order will also remove another popular Chinese-owned app, WeChat, from app stores.
President Trump could rescind the order before then if TikTok parent ByteDance can finalize a deal to make California-based Oracle its technology partner in the
United States, Reuters reported, citing three unidentified officials.
“Today’s actions prove once again that President Trump will do everything in his power to guarantee our national security and protect Americans from the threats of the Chinese Communist Party,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said.
TikTok has aggressively denied that it has ever shared data with China’s authoritarian government and has said it would not do so if asked.
The move comes more than a month after Trump signed an executive order requiring ByteDance to sell its US operations to a “very American company” or see the app banned.
TikTok this week came to terms with California tech giant Oracle — headed by billionaire Trump supporter Larry Ellison — in a deal that would see the cloudcomputing company take a 20 percent stake.
Like most social networks, TikTok collects user data and moderates users’ posts. The app grabs users’ locations and messages, and tracks what they watch to figure out how best to target ads to them.