TikTok: Trump Will Prohibit Transactions with Bytedance Beginning September 20
NPC-131072 writes:
From The Verge:
President Trump has signed a new executive order which will block all transactions with Bytedance, TikTok's parent corporation, in an effort to "address the national emergency with respect to the information and communication technology supply chain."
The move comes after months of escalating tensions, which saw Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others at the White House warn that TikTok presented a national security threat because of its Chinese ownership. Microsoft is currently in talks to acquire portions of the app, aimed to be complete by September 15th.
A parallel order banned transactions with WeChat, a popular texting app in China that maintains a small user base in the US.
[...] The executive branch has the power to levy sanctions against individuals and corporations by placing them on the "entity list," as the US did against Huawei and ZTE last year. But such sanctions are typically put in place by the Commerce Department rather than the White House, and subject to a specific rule-making procedure that seems to have been short-circuited by the surprise executive order.
See also: Tencent stock plummets after Trump announces plan to ban WeChat in the US
Previously:
(2020-08-01) President Trump Threatens TikTok Ban, Microsoft Considers Buying TikTok's U.S. Operations[Updated 2]
(2020-07-07) Reddit and LinkedIn Stop Copying iPhone Clipboard Contents
(2020-06-30) India Bans TikTok, WeChat, and Other Chinese-Owned Apps
(2020-06-28) TikTok and 53 Other iOS Apps Still Snoop Your Sensitive Clipboard Data
(2019-12-27) Investigation Claims United Arab Emirates Uses The ToTok App To Spy
(2019-10-26) Lawmakers Ask US Intelligence to Assess If TikTok is a Security Threat
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