Speaking to journalists on Air Force One this evening, US President Donald Trump is reported to have announced that his administration will be banning popular social media app TikTok.
National political reporter for NBC News Josh Lederman said Trump came back to speak with reporters aboard Air Force One and revealed a few things off the record, including the news about TikTok. The reporters appear to have asked for that to be on the record, and Lederman said that Trump agreed to that.
We are still in the air on Air Force One, landing shortly. Trump came back to speak with us off the record and agreed to move the portion about TikTok on the record
— Josh Lederman (@JoshNBCNews) August 1, 2020
Trump has been toying with the idea of banning TikTok for some time, over concerns that the app has a "back door" to Beijing, and that the Chinese Communist Party can access users' data and content with their knowledge.
Earlier this month, Jeff Bezos' owned Amazon demanded that employees delete TikTok from their phones. TikTok has pulled their app from Hong Kong's digital marketplace as a result of China's new national security laws.
Discussions over the popular app have risen in volume throughout the spring, with pundits and personalities weighing in on whether the app should be considered a danger to Americans or merely another portal for self-expression in the ocean of the internet.
In April, speculation began to rise that TikTok might be a national security threat. While it appears to be nothing more than an app where kids can share goofy dances and oddities, a CCP law that's been in place since 2017 enforced closer ties between Chinese companies and the Beijing.
The US has had concerns about other Chinese companies as well, such as the smart phone company Huawei, which is believed to have broken US sanctions against Iran, and ZTE, a surveillance and facial recognition company.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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