Microsoft Plans Purchase of the U.S. Operations of China’s TikTok

U.S. tech giant Microsoft will reportedly move forward with plans to purchase the U.S. operations of the popular video-sharing app TikTok as the Chinese-owned platform faces a possible ban over national security issues.

The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. tech giant Microsoft will move forward with plans to purchase the U.S. operations of the popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok as the platform faces the risk of being banned in the U.S. due to national security concerns. President Donald Trump has backed down from his plan to ban the platform, giving Microsoft 45 days to negotiate a purchase.

Breitbart News previously reported that President Trump expressed concerns about the app and was considering banning it in the United States. “We’re looking at TikTok, we may be banning TikTok, we may be doing some other things, there are a couple of options,” Trump said. “A lot of things are happening so we’ll see what happens. We are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok.”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reportedly spoke with President Trump this weekend who appeared to initially be opposed to Microsoft purchasing the Chinese app, since then Microsoft has published a blog post stating that it would move to quickly continue discussions with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance Ltd. and hopes to complete negotiations by  September 15. Negotiations reportedly also include the ownership of TikTok’s operations in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Microsoft said in a statement: “Microsoft appreciates the U.S. Government’s and President Trump’s personal involvement as it continues to develop strong security protections for the country.”

Microsoft added that the company would ensure that the data of all American TikTok users would be transferred to the United States. The company further promised to add more privacy and security protections to the platform.

TikTok’s U.S. general manager, Vanessa Pappas, assured users about the future of the platform in a statement on Saturday saying: “I want to say thank you to the millions of Americans who use TikTok every day. We’re not planning on going anywhere.”

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com