Last Updated on August 7, 2020, 8:18 AM AST by Anthony Morris
TikTok has threatened that it would take legal action against the US after the US President, Donald Trump ordered the firms to stop doing business with the Chinese app TikTok within 45 days.
TikTok said that it was shocked by an executive order which came from the US President and it outlined the ban.
TikTok said that it would pursue all the available remedies and ensure that the rule of law is not discarded in the US.
Mr Trump has also issued a similar order against WeChat after a major escalation in Washington’s stand-off against Beijing.
Tencent, the owner of WeChat, said that they are reviewing the executive order to get a full understanding of the scenario.
In addition to WeChat, Tencent is also a leading gaming company, and it has a 40% stake in Epic Games which is the company behind a top-rated video game, Fortnite.
Trump has already threatened to ban TikTok in the US and cited national security concerns in the same and TikTok is now in talks with Microsoft to sell its American business. They have until 15 September to reach a deal, 15 September is the deadline set by Trump.
The Trump administration has claimed that the government of China has access to user information which is gathered by TikTok.
However, the company has denied the claim of the Trump administration.
ByteDance, a Chinese firm owns TikTok.
TikTok has said that it had tried to engage with the US government in good faith for almost a year.
However, it said that what the company encountered instead was that the administration did not pay any attention to the facts, dictated the terms of an agreement without going through the legal processes, and tried to put itself into negotiations between two private businesses.
The executive orders which have been issued against the short-video sharing platform TikTok and the messaging service WeChat are the latest measure in the Trump administration’s campaign against China.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
