President Donald Trump claims that TikTok will “be out of business in the United States” on September 15th if its Chinese parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell it and provide the US Treasury Department with “a lot of money,” backing off an earlier claim that he planned to “ban” the app over the weekend.
“I don’t mind whether it’s Microsoft or someone else, a big company, a secure company, a very American company buys it,” Trump told reporters, according to Bloomberg. “It’ll close down on Sept. 15 unless Microsoft or somebody else is able to buy it and work out a deal, an appropriate deal, so the Treasury of the United States gets a lot of money.”
Microsoft had published a blog post yesterday that confirms it is having acquisition discussions with ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company in China. It said that it hopes to finalize the deal by September 15th, but did not state that the date was provided by the President. The company also confirmed that CEO Satya Nadella has been in conversations with him.
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) can penalize ByteDance if it doesn’t sell off TikTok, but Trump’s “ban” language has much more sweeping implications. There’s virtually no precedent for the US government literally denying American access to an app, particularly one that isn’t charged with any legal violations directly relating to that ban. Trump also hasn’t explained in detail how he would effect this kind of American equivalent to China’s Great Firewall. However, a spinoff of TikTok particularly by Microsoft looks increasingly likely.
