In a separate interview, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin doubled down on the administration’s stance with the statement “we are not keeping TikTok in its current form.”
Responding to the administration’s planned action, WeChat and TikTok developer Tencent argued that they keep user data private. It seems unlikely that protestations from Chinese firms will change the administration’s plans to ban the social media platform.
Pompeo confirmed this on Sunday: “And we are going to fix it. And so he will take action in the coming days with respect to a broad array of national security risks that are presented by software that is connected to the Chinese Communist Party.”
For Microsoft, Trump’s hardliner stance towards China surely makes for an unwelcome surprise, since TikTok has been hailed as a wildly successful social media app with high profitability, making it an appetizing addition to Microsoft’s portfolio of products.
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