Trump claims to possess evidence against ByteDance; orders to divest interest in TikTok within 90 days
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'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,' Trump said.
The US President Donald Trump, in another series of orders against the Chinese company ByteDance, has ordered ByteDance to divest its interest in TikTok's operations in the US within 90 days.
Donald Trump has been trying to shut down ByteDance's popular short-video sharing app TikTok in the US for some time now. Trump believes the Chinese parents company is acting as an insider source for the Chinese intelligence.
“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,” Trump said in the order.
Trump, earlier, had announced a ban on the very popular video sharing app, TikTok. However, Microsoft came to the rescue of the Chinese app, announcing a possibility of taking over TikTok's US operations. Twitter, too, followed the suit.
Later, Trump announced a 45-days notice to TikTok to either sell or face the ban, demanding significant portion of the sale go to the US Treasury. Trump, at that time, said he would support the sale of TikTok's US operations to Microsoft Corp if the US government got a “substantial portion” of the sales price but warned he will ban the service in the United States on September 15.
"The following actions shall be prohibited beginning 45 days after the date of this order... any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd," Trump had earlier warned ByteDance.
Since then, there has been no confirmation on whether or not Microsoft or Twitter would buy the US operations of TikTok from ByteDance.
More details on the 90-days order are awaited.