With Microsoft in talks for TikTok, Trump talks of ban
NEW YORK — Microsoft is in advanced talks to buy the U.S. operations of TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned video app that has been a source of national security and censorship concerns, according to a person familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity to the negotiations.
The potential deal would be a victory for both companies, making Microsoft Corp. a major player in the social media arena and providing relief to TikTok and its parent company, Bytedance Ltd. — a target of President Donald Trump.
Trump said Friday that he would take action as soon as Saturday to ban TikTok in the United States. Trump’s comments aboard Air Force One came after published reports that the administration is planning to order China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok.
“As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump told reporters as he returned from Florida.
Trump said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order to enforce the action, insisting, “I have that authority.” He added, “It’s going to be signed tomorrow.”
Microsoft declined to comment. TikTok issued a statement Friday saying that, “While we do not comment on rumors or speculation, we are confident in the long-term success of TikTok.”
On Saturday it posted a short video from U.S. General Manager Vanessa Pappas saying “We’re not planning on going anywhere.”
Launched in 2017, TikTok’s fun, goofy videos and ease of use has made it immensely popular, and U.S. tech giants like Facebook and Snapchat see it as a competitive threat. It has said it has tens of millions of U.S. users and hundreds of millions globally. But its Chinese ownership has raised concerns about the censorship of videos, including those critical of the Chinese government, and the potential for sharing user data with Chinese officials.
TikTok maintains it doesn’t censor videos based on topics sensitive to China and it would not give the Chinese government access to U.S. user data even if asked. The company has hired a U.S. CEO, a former top Disney executive, to try and distance itself from its Chinese ownership.
U.S. armed forces have banned their employees from installing TikTok on government-issued phones. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month that the U.S. was considering banning TikTok.
Other countries are also taking action against TikTok. India in July banned dozens of Chinese apps, including TikTok, citing privacy concerns, amid tensions between the countries.
The U.S. government’s poor track record in bolstering Americans’ data privacy more broadly lessens its credibility in taking on Chinese-owned companies, according to Susan Ariel Aaronson, a professor at George Washington University and a data governance and nationalsecurity expert.
The federal government has not passed broad privacy or data-security legislation despite efforts to do so last year, and the Justice Department has tried to undermine encryption — which makes sure only a sender and receiver can see content they exchange — for law-enforcement reasons. Tech companies have pushed back.
“I continue to be wary of forcing a sale of TikTok without data protection laws they could try to follow,” Alex Stamos, the former chief security officer at Facebook who studies internet security at Stanford University, tweeted late last week.
He added that Microsoft “has one of the best child safety teams, which is a larger risk on TikTok right now.”