The standoff between Donald Trump and the TikTok app continues. The US president should "take action in the next few days" against several applications related to Chinese companies, said Sunday the head of US diplomacy Mike Pompeo. "President Donald Trump said 'enough is enough' (...), so he will take measures in the coming days in response to the various national security risks posed by software related to the Chinese Communist Party," a- he added in an interview on Fox News.
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"We're not going anywhere"
TikTok, an application that allows you to share small videos described as "light" with its network, must be sold or blocked in the United States because of concerns for national security, also warned on Sunday the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, on the ABC channel. The tone has been rising since Friday against the international social network of the Chinese group ByteDance, after weeks of threats and pressure. In a context of political and trade tensions with China, Washington has accused the interface for months of being able to be used by Chinese intelligence for surveillance purposes. TikTok has always firmly denied any data sharing with Beijing.
The tenant of the White House announced Friday evening that he was "banning" the very popular application, which has more than a billion users worldwide. "We're not going anywhere," responded Vanessa Pappas, head of the US branch of TikTok, in a video posted to the network on Saturday, assuring users that the app was here to "stay". She pledged 10,000 jobs in the United States over three years and added that the company was working to build the "safest" app, "because we know it's the right thing to do." TikTok has also defended itself against being spyware, insisting that everything is run by a privately held company and that the headquarters are in Los Angeles. User data is stored on US soil and in Singapore, the app also recalled.
Donald Trump opposed to a takeover by an American group
According to Mike Pompeo, networks like WeChat or TikTok "send data (about their users) directly to the Chinese Communist Party", including "their address, phone number, friends, contacts". "For a long time the United States just said, well, if we're having fun or if companies are making money with it, we're going to put up with it," he added.
Steven Mnuchin recalled that CFIUS, the agency of his ministry responsible for ensuring that foreign investments do not pose a risk to the security of the country, was investigating TikTok. "The whole agency agrees that TikTok cannot stay in the current format because it risks sending information on 100 million Americans," he said.
He also spoke with Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer in the Senate. "We agree that change is necessary. Force a sale or block the app. Everyone agrees that it cannot exist as it is."
But 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 actors involved, including ByteDance, according to the New York Times. According to the Wall Street Journal, negotiations for Microsoft's acquisition of the US business of TikTok were at a standstill on Saturday because of the president's comments. Despite everything, the American giant remains ready to acquire the American branch of TikTok.