Microsoft in ‘Tiktok takeover talks’ as Trump considers app ban

MICROSOFT is in talks to buy Tiktok, the popular social media app, reports suggest, as Donald Trump prepares to order the network’s Chinese parent company to sell it.

The move would mark the latest attack on Chinese firms by the Trump administration, which says companies such as Bytedance, which owns Tiktok, and Huawei, the hardware giant, are a threat to national security. The US government has also said it might ban the app, which has millions of American users and is particularly popular among teenagers but has come under fire for its security practices and concerns that its data could be exploited by the Chinese government or content censored.

Yesterday, Mr Trump told reporters for Bloomberg, which first reported the potential order, that he was still considering a ban, but was also exploring “a lot of alternatives”. In June, India banned the app, along with a host of other Chinese products – part of escalating tensions between the countries.

Tiktok joined other social media firms by pulling out of Hong Kong early last month, after a new security law was passed that could have compelled the app to pass on data to the Chinese government.

The international growth of the social network began when Bytedance, the Beijing-based media and entertainment giant, bought Musical.ly, a Chinese

company with US operations, in 2017, and merged it with Tiktok the following year.

Last year, it was the world’s second most downloaded app, behind Facebook’s Whatsapp. It has exploded in popularity during the pandemic and has been heavily used during recent protests in the US over racism and civil rights, with activists making videos sharing strategies and information.

Microsoft declined to comment on the reports. Purchasing the app would give it an important foothold in the social media market, an area it has not yet managed to successfully tap into.

Dan Ives, of Wedbush Securities, said the sale could give Microsoft “a crown jewel on the consumer social media front” at a time when its major competitors were under fire from regulators for competition concerns.

If Mr Trump were to force through a sale, it is expected it would come through the committee on foreign investment in the United States, which has ordered companies including Grindr, the dating app, to be sold by its Chinese owners.

Bytedance’s US investors, which include several large venture capital firms, are believed to have discussed buying Tiktok’s US operations. The app has several US offices and employs more than 1,000 Americans.

In an effort to allay concerns, in May this year, Tiktok hired Kevin Mayer, the American former Disney executive, to be its new chief executive.