President Trump has given ByteDance 90 days to sell off all its TikTok related assets in the U.S. As reported by the NY Post this follows the President’s executive order against the company. It claims “ByteDance … might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States”.
There has been some significant backlash since the announcement of these executive order from Trump. Firstly a poll revealed that despite some anger, the majority of Americans supported the ban. However, TikTok workers in the U.S. have expressed their dissatisfaction at the decision given the impact it will have on them.
There are a couple of front runners that may purchase the U.S. side of TikTok as reported by Phone Arena. These include Microsoft and Twitter although the latter is now looking less likely given the size of the acquisition.
90 days and counting for ByteDance to sell
The ticking clock has begun on this need to sell TikTok. That pressure is likely to cause some interesting symptoms over the coming weeks. At least this 90-day countdown has given some semblance of clarity to the situation.
Originally, the ban was sweeping but vague. Although many thought ByteDance would have to sell this was not made totally clear. Now that it is we can move on with what may happen next.
Many are worried that banning TikTok and WeChat from the App store may backfire heavily on Apple. Currently, 20% of iPhone sales come in China. This may shift in favour of Huawei which may well happen if customers are forced to choose between the apps and their phone.
Trump defends decision to ban TikTok
Trump and his administration have continued to defend their decision to ban the company associated with these apps. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany released a statement to this end.
It said, “The administration is committed to protecting the American people from all cyber threats and these apps collect significant amounts of private data on users”. She also pointed out that the Chinese government can access such data to stoke the fire further.
Microsoft looks in pole position to take over the app. The company seems to be the only one big enough and interested enough in the acquisition at the moment. Some reports suggests Twitter had an interest as well. However, this is more likely to be a merger rather than an acquisition which may not work to keep the app functional in America.
However, this all turns out the next few weeks and months are going to fascinating. As the race to get a deal done progresses people desperation will increase. As that happens, how this all unfolds could have major repercussion to the tech sector going forward.