POLAND - 2019/12/04: In this photo illustration a TikTok logo seen displayed on a smartphone with Chinese flag on the background. (Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump said Friday night that he is going to ban the Chinese video streaming app TikTok through emergency economic powers or through an executive order, CNN reported.
“As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump told reporters while aboard Air Force One, the report noted. “I have that authority,” he added.
The president’s remarks came after a Bloomberg report Friday indicated that Trump will order TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest from the popular social media app.
The White House has not responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment about how such a ban would take place.
Trump’s apparent decision to ban the app also comes after weeks of speculation about what the president would do about the app, which has raised national security concerns.
“We are taking this very seriously. We are certainly looking at it,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News in a July 7 interview after being asked about whether Trump is making a move against the company.
National security experts warn that TikTok, Huawei, and other Chinese tech companies are risks to the U.S.
Americans should download the app “only if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party,” Pompeo suggested during the interview.
U.S. officials have so far not found evidence that TikTok is providing personal user data to the Chinese Communist Party.
The company is under national security review, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing comments U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin made to reporters.
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