Any fellow TikTok fanatics out there? If any of your favorite TikTok influencers live in the US, then we’ve got bad news for you. President Trump just invoked his emergency economic powers to ban TikTok in the US. This means that TikTok will no longer receive any ads from US companies and will be removed from the Google Play Store and the App Store.
In the order, the White House says TikTok takes a lot of information from its millions of users, including their online search history and location data. TikTok’s privacy policy actually states the information that they collect, which is similar to other companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook. However, the White House is adamant on their claim that TikTok might be sending information to Beijing authorities.
The orders states: “This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”
TikTok officials have already spoken out about this in the past, saying that they have never sent any information to Chinese authorities and that the information that they have on US users is mostly stored in Virginia. (Source: The New York Times)
According to oberlo.com, 26.5 million Americans are active TikTok users on both Apple and Android devices. The executive order will take effect in 45 days.
Ever since talks of a potential ban on the app has surfaced, Microsoft has tried to acquire TikTok. Microsoft currently owns Xbox, LinkedIn, and Skype.
Trump has signed an executive order that restricts the business between WeChat and US citizens, as well. The executive order states: “Like TikTok, WeChat automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users. In addition, the application captures the personal and proprietary information of Chinese nationals visiting the United States, thereby allowing the Chinese Communist Party a mechanism for keeping tabs on Chinese citizens who may be enjoying the benefits of a free society for the first time in their lives.”
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