Microsoft announced Sunday that it will continue talks with the TikTok video app after a verbal exchange between CEO Satya Nadella and President Donald Trump.
The announcement came here after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that Trump will take action “in the coming days” as opposed to TikTok and other Chinese software corporations considered as threats to national security.
“Microsoft will act temporarily to continue talks with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, in a few weeks and, in any case, will complete those discussions until September 15, 2020,” Microsoft said in a blog post on Sunday. “During this process, Microsoft hopes to continue the discussion with the U.S. government, Adding with the President.”
TikTok offers short videos, known for their gentle appearance. The app has a favorite of young people.
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Trump said Friday that Chinese-owned TikTok would be banned in the United States, which he said he could do through emergency powers or an executive order.
Their risk comes when management investigates that ByteDance is gathering knowledge from Americans. Last year, the U.S. Navy suggested service members remove the application of government devices.
The previous Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on ABC’s “This Week” that TikTok is still in its current form because it “risks returning the inshaperation to about a hundred million Americans.”
Speaking on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Pompeo said TikTok and WeChat, a messaging app, were “transmitting knowledge to the Chinese Communist Party.”
“The president, when he makes his decision, will bring everything we’ve done closer to the threat 0 to the American people,” Pompeo said.
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In its statement, Microsoft said that it “appreciates the importance of addressing the president’s concerns” and “committed to obtaining the TikTok theme for a comprehensive security review and providing an adequate economy to the United States.”
“Discussions with ByteDance will be about a notification from Microsoft and ByteDance to the U.S. Foreign Investment Committee,” Microsoft said. “Both corporations notified their goal of exploring an initial proposal that would involve the acquisition of the TikTok service in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and would lead Microsoft to own and operate TikTok in those markets.”
Microsoft stated that “the proposed new design would be based on the fun that TikTok users enjoy lately, while adding world-class security, privacy, and virtual security protections.”
Microsoft said that “would ensure that all personal knowledge of TikTok users in the US. Transfer and remain in the United States. To the extent that this knowledge is recently stored or subsidied in the United States, Microsoft will ensure that this knowledge is removed from the country’s outdoor servers after it is transferred.”
TikTok cannot be contacted without delay for feedback on Sunday night. On Saturday, the corporation told USA TODAY that its knowledge of U.S. users It is stored in the U.S.
“We are committed to protecting the privacy and protection of our users as we continue to paint to brighten up the meaningful families and careers for those who believe on our platform,” TikTok said in his Statement on Saturday.
Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, told investors that with an acquisition, Microsoft would throw his “hat in the ring” and pay to compete with other tech giants like Facebook on a new expansion street for the next. decade for their customer activity. “
“For Microsoft, it would be a big bet on the customer’s social media space, from which the company has moved away for more than a decade,” Ives wrote. “Microsoft purchasing TikTok and those operations in the United States would solve security issues with this app.”
Contributors: John Fritze, Jefferson Graham, David Jackson and Courtney Subramanian, USA TODAY; Related press
Follow USA TODAY journalist Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko