Trump told reporters on Air Force One he is banning TikTok from the US

• President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday that he is banning the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok from the US.
• "As far as TikTok is concerned we're banning them from the United States," Trump told pool reporters on Friday, according to a pool report from the Los Angeles Times' David Cloud.
• Trump asserted he had the "authority" to do so "with an executive order or that," according to Cloud's pool report.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday that he is banning the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok from the US using his "presidential authority."

"As far as TikTok is concerned we're banning them from the United States," Trump told pool reporters on Friday, according to a pool report from the Los Angeles Times' David Cloud.

Trump asserted he had the "authority" to do so "with an executive order or that," citing Cloud's pool report. It's unclear what authority he has to "ban" the app.

US officials have been urging a ban on the video app citing security concerns that the video app could share data on American citizens with China's authoritarian government. Representatives from the TikTok have said it has no intention of doing so.

The president's desire to ban the Chinese-owned app comes amid efforts from Microsoft to acquire the US operations of the app.

The company is reportedly in "advanced talks" of the sale, which "could eliminate potential legal challenges — and public backlash — that could have occurred if the wildly popular app was forced off millions of American smartphones," The Wall Street Journal reported.

Trump is planning to sign an executive order directing ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to "divest its ownership" in the app's US operations, Bloomberg reported Friday.

Representatives from the White House did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

In an earlier statement to Business Insider regarding the potential sale of US operations to Microsoft, a TikTok representative said that the company did not comment "on rumors or speculation" and that it was "confident in the long-term success of TikTok."

"Hundreds of millions of people come to TikTok for entertainment and connection, including our community of creators and artists who are building livelihoods from the platform," TikTok said in its statement. "We're motivated by their passion and creativity, and committed to protecting their privacy and safety as we continue working to bring joy to families and meaningful careers to those who create on our platform."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why YETI coolers are so expensive

from Tech Insider https://ift.tt/33gPRYe
via IFTTT