The Complicated State Of Tik Tok: Microsoft Or Shut Down

Tik Tok has taken the world by storm. Hundreds of millions of accounts on Tik Tok were created in the past few years. As we see it, Tik Tok is one of the biggest social media platforms out there, especially for the youth. However, a few weeks back, there have been talks to ban Tik Tok in the United States. Currently, there might be a tech giant ready to swoop in. 

Trump has been in long-standing quarrels with China since 2019. This puts pressure on Tik Tok, a china-based short video platform. State officials and lawmakers suggest that Tik Tok might be a security threat to America. 

What’s the ban for?

As said earlier, some lawmakers including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo voiced out their security concerns. They believe that the chinese-owned company might get access to Americans’ private information. As we recall, there are over 80 million Tik Tok users in the USA alone. 

However, President Trump was citing a different reason. According to him, he is banning Tik Tok to punish China for causing the COVID-19 pandemic. He said in a Business Insider article:

“Look, what happened with China with this virus, what they’ve done to this country and to the entire world is disgraceful,” Trump said, adding that banning TikTok was “one of many” options he was considering as a way to punish China.

An American Tech Company Is Swooping In

Days before Trump announced the ban on Tik Tok, the company has already been in talks of selling parts of its company to interested investors. Tik Tok might have caught the news before it was published that immediately made moves to ease the President’s anger. 

After a couple of attempts to finalize the talks, Microsoft has finally confirmed that they are interested in acquiring Tik Tok from ByteDance. Microsoft will not only buy Tik Tok in the US. The tech giant also wants to purchase Tik Tok in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. 

There are no clues as to how a Microsoft-owned Tik Tok would look like. However, their purchase of Tik Tok answers more questions as to who will own the data over its form or function. 

Microsoft and ByteDance are expected to conclude their talks on or before September 25, 2020. 

What’s Next for Tik Tok?

Actually, this is everyone’s question right now. The answer is: we aren’t sure yet. The US government has been extremely unpredictable in terms of their decision. We all just have to wait for a couple more weeks to find out the decision. 

While waiting for Tik Tok’s fate, you might want to read here about their $200 million plan to support its content creators.