US President Donald Trump (Image Photo)
WASHINGTON: Every deal for sale Tik Tok to a US company must provide ‘total security’ and ‘substantially’ benefit from the United States, President Donald Trump said when he insisted on the September 15 deadline for the popular Chinese social networking app to sign an agreement with a U.S. firm to continue its operations in the country.
Microsoft is in talks to buy the US company TikTok, a forced sale after Trump threatened to ban the video-sharing platform, which claims 100 million US users and hundreds of millions worldwide.
In response to India’s recent ban on Chinese social media apps, Trump signed executive orders on August 6 that would prevent TikTok and WeChat from operating in the US because of threats Americaits national security and economy. The ban will take effect in 45 days.
India was the first country to ban TikTok and WeChat, with concerns about national security concerns. India has banned as many as 106 Chinese apps, a move welcomed by both the Trump administration and U.S. lawmakers.
“We have a deadline of September 15. And whether it’s Microsoft, I understand – and others are negotiating – we’ve also said that, of course, it’s worthless if we do not allow them the country, that we said the United Treasury of the state will get something out of this deal – something very substantial, “Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
“What we want is total security, but we have a September 15 deadline. I know Microsoft and others here are very interested, but that’s our deadline. And it needs to be proven to be completely secure. We do not want to have all the information. in China about what we have been passed on, “he asserted.
Trump has accused TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance Ltd, of collecting personal information from Americans.
TikTok automatically transmits great information from its users. This data collection threatens to give the ruling Chinese Communist Party access to personal and proprietary information of Americans – possibly allowing China to track the locations of federal employees and contractors, build personal information files for extortion, and conduct corporate espionage, he claimed.
TikTok has previously claimed that its US user data is already stored on US-based servers and backed up in Singapore, and is therefore not subject to Chinese law, as some US officials have feared.
In response to a question, Trump said the US is not talking to China about the deal.
“We are not talking to them (China) … we are talking to the companies. In theory, it is a company, but it is a company within China. That means China. The deal will have to be substantially beneficial to the United States, and we need total security, ‘he repeated.
Earlier in the day, White Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president had signed two executive orders, exercising his authority under the International Act of Emergency Economic Powers Act, to address the threats posed by TikTok and WeChat.
“The administration is working to protect the American people from all cyber threats, and these apps collect significant amounts of private data about users, and such information can be accessed and used by the PRC (People’s Republic of China). And TikTok has a documented history of “Censorship of free speech to comply with (CCP) Chinese Communist Party propaganda. And we take the data of Americans very seriously,” she said.
On Wednesday, Governor Pete Ricketts of Nebraska banned TikTok from state apparatus.
“TikTok is a Chinese Communist Party Chinese Communist Party – and a cyber security nightmare for America. If we want to protect our data from President Xi’s spies and keep them out of their massive data punishment, we must stay far, far away from TikTok. , ”Senator Ben Sasse said in a statement.
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