Tag: TikTok

Sen. Hawley Wants TikTok Deal with Oracle Rejected, Says Move Allows for China’s Control Over the App

Minnesota Sun Staff

Sen. Josh Hawley called on the Trump administration Monday to reject the partnership proposal Oracle reached with TikTok.

The Missouri Republican argued in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that the partnership won’t prohibit the Chinese Communist Party from controlling the app. Hawley said the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is responsible for approving or rejecting the deal, should reject anything other than a complete break from China.

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American CEO of TikTok Resigns Amid Trump Pressure on Chinese-Owned App

Minnesota Sun Staff

TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer resigned from the Chinese-owned application after less than four months on the job, CNN reported Thursday morning.

“The role that I signed up for — including running TikTok globally — will look very different as a result of the US Administration’s action to push for a sell off of the US business,” Mayer said in memo to employees obtained by CNN. “I’ve always been globally focused in my work, and leading a global team that includes TikTok US was a big draw for me.”

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Tiktok to Fight Trump Over His Pending Order to Ban Its App

The Associated Press

Video app TikTok said it will wage a legal fight against the Trump Administration’s efforts to ban the popular, Chinese-owned service over national-security concerns.

TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, insisted Monday that it is not a national-security threat and that the government is acting without evidence or due process. The company said it will file suit against the government later Monday in federal court in California. A copy of the complaint could not be obtained.

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Trump Orders Chinese Owner of TikTok to Sell U.S. Assets

The Associated Press

President Donald Trump on Friday gave the Chinese company ByteDance 90 days to divest itself of any assets used to support the popular TikTok app in the United States.

Trump’s executive order said there is “credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance … might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.”

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NYT Report Suggests One-Third of TikTok Users Might Be Under 14

Minnesota Sun Staff

Roughly a third of TikTok’s 49 million daily users in the United States are 14 years old or younger, The New York Times reported Friday, citing internal documents.

The Chinese app’s workers noticed videos from children who appear much younger that remained on the video-streaming platform for weeks, a former employee told the Times. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), passed in 1998, requires internet companies to obtain parental permission before gathering data from adolescents under 13.

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A Major Pro-Trump Tech Investor Is Reportedly Working Behind the Scenes to Save TikTok’s US Operations

Minnesota Sun Staff

One of President Donald Trump’s biggest supporters inside Silicon Valley is acting behind the scenes to rescue TikTok’s U.S. operations while the president considers the app’s future, according to recently published media reports.

Doug Leone, a Sequoia Capital global managing partner, is pressing U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House adviser Jared Kushner to find a solution to keep TikTok in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing sources familiar with the discussion.

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TikTok Threatens Legal Action Against Trump, Says Executive Order Banning the App Is Illegal

Minnesota Sun Staff

TikTok threatened to sue President Donald Trump Friday for signing an executive order prohibiting individuals from communicating with the Chinese social media app’s parent company over the next 45 days.

The executive order, which also impacts Chinese app WeChat, was issued Thursday night “without any due process,” TikTok said in a press statement.

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Commentary: TikTok is Just the First Chinese App the Trump Admin is Eyeing for Crackdown Over Spying

Minnesota Sun Staff
TikTok Social Media

Two days after President Trump told reporters that he plans to ban TikTok from the United States, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested in an interview with Fox News that executive action may soon be taken against many other apps owned by Chinese firms.

Trump remarked to journalists aboard Air Force One on Friday that he could ban TikTok “with an executive order,” suggesting that the president has made up his mind about the popular short video platform. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech conglomerate ByteDance, has been at the center of a months-long debate over whether the data that it collects from American users could be exploited by China’s government.

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TikTok Hires Former GOP and Democratic Congressional Staffers to Lobby on US Policy Ahead of the Election

Minnesota Sun Staff

TikTok has hired several Democratic and Republican operatives to lobby the U.S. governmental amid concerns that the social media platform represents a national security threat.

The company hired several operatives recently to lobby on TikTok’s behalf, including Michael Hacker, who worked as a senior advisor to Democratic House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, CNBC reported Friday. TikTok hired two executives from the Internet Association as well, according to the report.

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