Trump Administration Considering Banning TikTok From Apple’s Global App Store

TikTok may be facing a global ban from Apple’s app store, according to new documents outlining the Trump administration’s plans for the Chinese video content creation platform.

This news follows shortly after President Trump signed an executive order, banning US transactions with TikTok if parent company ByteDance does not divest into a US company within 45 days. According to new documents obtained by Reuters, if ByteDance fails to divest, the ban would then cut off US business transactions, disrupting TikTok’s funding. On top of that, the ban would cease all US operations, spelling disaster for the video app.

TikTok could avoid the ban by divesting in a US company. Microsoft has been publically vocal on its interests to purchase the company’s US operations and is currently discussing terms with ByteDance. Though, the timeline in which an agreement must be made gets shorter each day. Preliminary discussions are to be held no later than September 15th.

Alongside the executive order against TikTok, President Trump signed two additional executive orders. One was focused on Tencent and the other was on the popular messaging app WeChat. The terms for WeChat are still up in the air. However, previous reports indicate that if similar measures are taken against the app, it would take a toll on Apple.

Seeing as though the app is being used by 1.2 billion monthly users, Apple’s annual global shipments would decline up to 25-30 percent if forced to remove the app from the App Store, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

P.S. - Like our news? Support the site with a coffee/beer. Or shop with our Amazon link. We use affiliate links when possible--thank you for supporting independent media.