MIKE POMPEO SAYS, U.S. May Act Against TikTok Shortly!

MIKE POMPEO SAYS WASHINGTON COULD ‘SHORTLY’ TAKE ACTION AGAINST TikTok AND OTHER CHINESE COMPANY AMID EARLIER PUSHBACK FROM TikTok

Report from the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the Trump administration is on the verge of “closing in on a solution and I think you will see the president’s announcement shortly”, however, this comes just days after the U.S. President ‘Donald Trump’ made it clear he will use executive power to ban TikTok.

In the same vein, an interview on Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures” host ‘Maria Bartiromo’, ‘Mike Pompeo’ equally pointed out that the Trump’s administration could as well take action against other Chinese tech companies doing business in the United States, saying some are “feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party”. However, these are theories.  Should Trump administration remain adamant about this! We’ll have to sit back and watch the drama as it unfolds.

According to reports, Beijing-based ByteDance, owner of TikTok is currently in talks with the OS giant ‘Microsoft’ for the acquisition of a stake in TikTok business in the United States including several other countries to Microsoft. Talks have really gone advanced over the last two weeks due to unprecedented statements from Trump administration about the subject app – TikTok. Funny enough, there are other apps developed by Chinese firms that have been tagged threat to national security by the Indian government, though Microsoft didn’t mention that. Should the U.S. ban these apps? It will be catastrophic for the Chinese apps ecosystem.

Microsoft is currently doing all it can in order to have a deal with ByteDance, which Reuters had last week reported that TikTok’s parent company – ByteDance will definitely relinquish control to Microsoft despite pushing back. Reflecting on Mike Pompeo sayings while answering Bartiromo’s question, if a possible sale could serve as an assurance to the U.S. government, he made it clear that Trump’s administration would “make sure that everything we have done drives us as close to zero risk for the American people”.

In view of this, the U.S. Treasury Secretary ‘Steven Mnuchin’ had at last week Wednesday confirmed that TikTok is currently under review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), adding that, the body is also investigating if the acquisition of the subject app of Musical.ly in 2018, which merged with TikTok, constitutes a national security threat. While on the other hand, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee ‘Marc Rubio’ also told the Financial Times last week that TikTok definitely needs to answer questions about where the app’s data is stored and how it’s protected.

In another dimension, the subject app’s company lately decided to push back as it tries to sway regulators and the public with all it could that has been embedded in an argument of free enterprise and free speech, in a bid to ensure the parent company – ByteDance can retain control over TikTok’s operations.

At the moment, the reports of a potential Presidential ban and Microsoft bid to take over the company’s U.S. business is also weighed as validity to keep the business while it’s faced with political attacks and domestic competitors. In wake of this, TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have picked up some defenders from the American civil rights movement.

What’s your take on Mike Pompeo response over TikTik?