Using 'national emergency' powers, Trump bans transactions with TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order banning any transactions with Tencent, the owner of app, WeChat and ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the video-sharing app TikTok, starting in 45 days.

TikTok may be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party and the United States "must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security," Trump said in the order.

US Donald Trump thinks the proceeds from the sale of TikTok should go to the US Treasury. Credit: AP

Trump has called out TikTok as a national security threat as tensions worsen between his administration and the Chinese government.

Trump issued the orders under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law that grants the administration sweeping power to bar US firms or citizens from trading or conducting financial transactions with sanctioned parties.

"This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information - potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage," according to the order.

WeChat is a messaging, social media and payment system, used heavily in China and growing in popularity elsewhere.

In the other, Trump said WeChat "automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users. This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information."

Tencent and ByteDance declined to comment.

On Monday, Trump told reporters at the White House that TikTok would be forced to cease US operations by around September 15 if it wasn't sold to a US company. He also said that if a sale goes through, part of the proceeds should go to US taxpayers.

"A very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the treasury of the United States," Trump said of the potential TikTok sale.

"The United States should be reimbursed or paid because without the United States they don't have anything."

The president added: "It's a little bit like the landlord-tenant. Without a lease, the tenant has nothing. So they pay what's called key money or they pay something."

Microsoft is in talks to buy TikTok and has also identified September 15 as the deadline for talks to conclude.

Reuters, Washington Post