Americans and U.S. companies will be banned from making transactions with ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, in 45 days, according to a new executive order President Trump issued Thursday evening.
The big picture: Last week Trump announced his intention to ban TikTok but said he'd leave a 45-day period for Microsoft or other U.S.-based suitors to try to close a deal to acquire the popular video-sharing app.
Details: Trump's order cites "emergency powers" as the basis for the unusual order targeting a single foreign company.
- According to the order, TikTok's "data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage."
- TikTok has long said that it stores all data belonging to U.S. customers in facilities outside of China that are not subject to Chinese law.
