President Donald Trump said on Friday he would sign an executive order as soon as Saturday to ban TikTok in the United States, ratcheting up the pressure on the popular short-video app's Chinese owner to sell it. The move would be the culmination of U.S. national security concerns over the safety of the personal data that TikTok handles. Trump's announcement followed frantic negotiations on Friday between the White House, ByteDance and potential buyers of TikTok, including Microsoft Corp. It was not immediately clear what authority Trump had to ban TikTok, which has up to 80 million active monthly users in the United States. "While we do not comment on rumors or speculation, we are confident in the long-term success of TikTok," TikTok said in a statement.

Source: The Star August 01, 2020 03:11 UTC