Washington (AFP)
TikTok is still accessible in the United States, two days after the ban announced by Donald Trump, but several members of the government have spoken of imminent measures against the very popular social network.
The president "will take action in the coming days in response to the various national security risks posed by software linked to the Communist Party of China," US foreign minister Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Sunday. .
TikTok must be sold or blocked in the United States, also warned Sunday the Secretary of the United States Treasury Steven Mnuchin, on the channel ABC.
The international social network belongs to the Chinese group ByteDance, which, in China, operates an app on the same principle but separate, with a different name.
In a context of political and trade tensions with China, Washington has accused for months the interface of being used by Chinese intelligence for surveillance purposes. TikTok has always firmly denied any data sharing with Beijing.
The tone has risen since the White House tenant announced on Friday that he was "banning" the hugely popular app for sharing light videos.
"We're not going anywhere," responded Vanessa Pappas, head of TikTok's US branch, in a video posted to the network on Saturday, assuring users that the app was here to "stay".
- "The big losers" -
"The United States would be the big losers if TikTok were banned," said Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank close to the tech giants, on Saturday.
“Millions of Americans, including many Trump supporters, use it to create and share content. (...) All of its servers are located outside of China, and there is no evidence that it constitutes a threat to national security ".
Friday night, the president was categorical: "I have the power" to ban the app, he assured reporters.
He threatened to use an executive order or the International Economic Emergency Power Act (IEEPA), which gives the head of state certain powers to regulate international trade in the event of an "unusual and extraordinary (foreign) threat" against diplomacy. American, security or economy.
Donald Trump can take action that would restrict TikTok's access to the US market or force Apple and Google to remove the network from their app stores.
Something to worry about users of the lightweight video sharing platform, especially content creators who earn money from it.
Several of them have posted links to their Instagram or YouTube profiles so as not to lose their subscribers in the event of closure. Others use humor or try to prove that it is impossible to block such a popular network.
Some claim that Donald Trump is seeking revenge for the rows of empty seats at his campaign rally in Tulsa (Oklahoma) at the end of June, when teenagers proclaimed on TikTok that they had ordered many tickets with the firm intention not to go there.
- American dream -
On June 1, Kevin Mayer, the former head of Disney's streaming platforms (Disney +, Hulu and ESPN +), took over as head of the platform. On Saturday, Vanessa Pappas promised 10,000 job creations in the United States over three years, in addition to the 1,500 existing employees.
"Do not be fooled," said Peter Navarro, a close adviser to the president, fierce opponent of China and architect of the trade war unleashed against Beijing.
"China has hired a lot of American lobbyists. They put a puppet as the boss of this company," he told Fox News on Saturday.
Friday evening, Donald Trump also let it be known that he was opposed to a takeover by an American group, a solution that nevertheless agreed with most of the players involved, including ByteDance, according to the New York Times.
Negotiations for Microsoft's acquisition of TikTok's US operations were at a standstill Saturday because of the president's comments, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"It's getting weird. A 100% sale to an American company, which would have been considered a radical solution two weeks ago, helps to alleviate reasonable concerns about data protection," Alex Stamos, former manager tweeted on Saturday. security at Facebook and researcher at Stanford University. "If the White House kills (this takeover), we will know that it was not a matter of national security."
© 2020 AFP