WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald trump said on Friday that he was planning to sign an executive order as soon as Saturday banning Chinese-owned short-video app TikTok from the United States.
The move would be the culmination of U.S. national security concerns over the safety of the personal data that TikTok handles. It would represent a major blow for TikTok’s owner, Beijing-based ByteDance, which became one of only a handful of truly global Chinese conglomerates thanks to the app’s commercial success.
“As far as TikTok is concerned, we are banning them from the United States… I will sign the document tomorrow,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
ByteDance and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Alexandra Alper in Washington, D.C.; Editing by William Mallard)
