The decree of US President Donald Trump “On Fighting the TikTok Threat” may restrict the placement of the application in the American App Store and Google Play stores, and also make advertising on this service illegal. This was reported by Reuters with reference to the White House document.
In addition, according to the agency, it may become illegal to accept the terms of the user agreement for downloading the TikTok app to the user’s device. At the same time, a source in the White House confirmed the authenticity of the document, which was reviewed by Reuters. Apple and Alphabet have not yet commented on the information.
James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that the rules are literally “killing TikTok in the US,” but US government bans may not be able to prevent users from downloading the app to their devices from foreign sites.
On August 8, it became known that the American microblogging service Twitter and the Chinese social network TikTok are negotiating a possible merger. Twitter is only interested in the American segment of TikTok, but its cost can still be several tens of billions of dollars.
In early August, US President Donald Trump announced that Microsoft or another American company must buy TikTok by September 15, otherwise the application will be banned in the country.
According to media reports, Microsoft is ready to offer $ 30 billion for the social network, but the owner of TikTok, the Chinese company ByteDance, estimates the application at $ 50 billion.
On August 6, Trump signed the Anti-Threat Decrees from Chinese applications. According to the documents, any transactions in the American jurisdiction with Chinese companies ByteDance and Tencent, owners of TikTok and WeChat applications, must be terminated within 45 days.