Microsoft recently confirmed that the company is in talks with TikTok for acquiring its business in the United States. It also confirmed that the company is aiming to close the deal by 15th September, as mandated by the U.S. government.
Now, it seems that the issue isn’t just related to TikTok and the United States is planning to take action against other applications. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that action will be taken against WeChat and “countless” Chinese software companies.
He said that action will be taken against Chinese companies that pose a national security threat to America. However, it’s noteworthy that the United States has not yet provided any substantial proof of security-related issues by Chinese apps in question.
In an interview with Fox News, Mike Pompeo said: “These Chinese software companies doing business with the United States, whether it’s TikTok or WeChat, there are countless more … are feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party their national security apparatus. It could be their facial recognition pattern, it could be information about their residence, their phone numbers, their friends who they’re connected to… Those are the issues President Trump’s made clear we’re going to take care of. He will take action in the coming days with respect to a broad array of national security risks that are presented by software connected to the Chinese Communist Party.”
TikTok has repeatedly denied that it could be used by the Chinese government as the company’s U.S. user data is already stored on US-based servers and backed up in Singapore, so it is not subject to Chinese law.
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If the acquisition deal goes through, then Microsoft says that it would ensure that all private data of TikTok’s American users will remain in the U.S. After the acquisition, Microsoft will own and operate the short view social media platform in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
However, Microsoft has added that there was no certainty that a deal would be reached. It is being reported that ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming and investors of the company are reluctant to sell the U.S. business.
The United States isn’t the only country that is threatening action against the Chinese applications citing privacy and security risks. Recently, India banned TikTok, WeChat, and dozens of other Chinese apps as tensions regarding the India-China border dispute rises.
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