Beyond the physical and psychological harm TikTok is causing to young people, the app’s content puts U.S. security at risk by providing the Chinese Communist government with a propaganda megaphone directly targeting 170 million American users.
United States President Donald Trump is seemingly using TikTok, a popular social media platform owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, as a bargaining chip for Sino-US economic and trade relations, experts and market insiders said on Tuesday.
TikTok owner ByteDance is reportedly still searching for non-sale options to stay in the US after the Supreme Court upheld a national security law requiring that TikTok's US operations either be shut down or sold to a non-foreign adversary.
General Atlantic CEO and ByteDance board member Bill Ford said Wednesday that he believes TikTok soon will reach a deal to remain in the U.S. “It’s in everybody’s interest,” Ford said
Billionaire Frank McCourt has expressed openness to partnering with other buyers for a bid to acquire TikTok's U.S. operations. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, McCourt emphasised that while financing is not a challenge,
"Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth ... But if you don't make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply you will have to pay a tariff," Trump said.
On the campaign trail last year, President Donald Trump talked tough about imposing tariffs as high as 60% on Chinese goods and threatened to renew the trade war with China that he launched during his first term.