US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order late Thursday to block all U.S. transactions with TikTok’s Chinese parent corporation, Bytedance, the latest move by the administration to force the video-sharing app to sever its ties to Beijing.
Reports say the order would bar “any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd” in an effort to “address the national emergency with respect to the information and communication technology supply chain.”
The administration is investigating whether ByteDance is harvesting the data of millions of American users. The U.S. Navy last year urged service members to delete the app from government devices.
The new order bans TikTok under the National Emergencies Act and is set to take effect in 45 days, just after the Sept. 15 deadline set for Microsoft’s proposed purchase of the social media platform. Any company still doing business with TikTok in 45 days is subject to sanctions, according to the order.
