Donald Trump has decided to block the use of TikTok in the United States: too high a risk to national security
He had announced it in previous weeks and now he has done it: Donald Trump is ready to block the app TikTok in the United States through a presidential decree. The President of the United States of America announced it to reporters on Air Force One stating that he has the power to do so and that he will do it by the end of the day today. If the decision is confirmed, it would be a blow for TikTok, which has over 50 million users in the U.S., and especially a further disrespect towards China by the U.S.
TikTok, in fact, is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company also participated by Tencent, the most important software house in the world, also based in China. Trump has motivated the decision saying: "TikTok is a source of concern for national security, we will ban it in the United States". In the last hours it was also advanced the hypothesis of an interest from Microsoft for the purchase of TikTok, idea that Trump has strongly rejected.
TikTok blocked in the United States: what changes for users
A momentous decision that follows what already happened last year with Huawei: TikTok will be banned in the United States, most likely already from today. The decision has been pre-announced by Donald Trump and should be made official with a presidential decree. The concerns are about the possible presence of malware in TikTok's code that would allow the app to obtain confidential information about users. At the moment, however, these are only suppositions, since no virus has ever been discovered inside the app.
The decision taken by the United States could be followed by other nations and in fact it has already happened in India: the Government in the previous weeks blocked about fifty Chinese apps for the same reasons for which Donald Trump would like to block TikTok.
TikTok sale, Microsoft comes forward
To avoid the block in the United States, ByteDance could also decide to sell the app to US investors. In the last hours there has been a lot of talk about an interest of Microsoft that, with the purchase of TikTok, would descend in the field of the most used social apps by young people. The Redmond company is not lacking in resources: it has a liquidity of more than 170 billion dollars and the value of TikTok is around 20-25 billion.
Donald Trump, however, said he was against this idea and any hypothesis of purchase of TikTok by a U.S. company. We'll see how this issue evolves in the coming weeks.