Walmart and Oracle must have “Total control” over TikTok or the app will be “cut off” in U.S says Trump
When I first heard the news about the possibility of the insanely popular content site TikTok to be sold partially to U.S companies I shrugged it off. I laughed out loud and said “this is never going to happen. The sad truth is that under the Trump Administration, it very well could if China doesn’t cooperate with the Trump administrations demands.
Trump has threatened to block the new deal with Oracle and Walmart joining forces with Tiktok. He said this week that unless Oracle and Walmart has “total control” of the popular app they’re not going to approve the deal.
Donald Trump approved the deal this month for TikTok to be partially sold to the companies Walmart and Oracle. Now it’s in the Chinese government’s hands. China may very well disapprove of this act of extortion by the Trump administration.
In case you don’t know what TikTok is (and live under a rock) here’s a brief rundown: Tiktok is an insanely popular, video-sharing mobile application owned by the Chinese company ByteDance Ltd., TikTok has reportedly been downloaded over 175 million times in the United States alone. Tiktok has been downloaded over and one billion times globally.
Back in August, Donald Trump signed an executive order to shut down TikTok out of alleged national security and privacy fears.
At the time of Trump’s executive order in August I truly did think this was just another publicity stunt made by Donald Trump in an attempt to either distract people from the poor handling of the corona virus or something else. I’m not totally ruling this out either but the fact of the matter is, TikTok may very well be shut down. The companies backs are against the wall to meet the President’s demands or face the consequences of being shut down in the United States.
Many content creators use this incredible platform for entertainment and ads that they create on the site. Although TikTok is not yet monetized for it’s creators from videos made on the site it’s still an incredible app that these content creators rely on to make a living from ads that they partner with on the platform as well as connecting social media and creating revenue from Instagram and Facebook. So I asked myself, how could this app possibly be shut down if so many people rely on it for entertainment and content creators relying on this platform to make an honest living?
The truth is that this is extortion. This is claimed by the Chinese government as well as many others around the world. The Trump administration has put a proverbial gun to the heads of TikTok and told them to sell or die in the United States.
The executive order has a few valid points such as threats to national security. The reason to forcefully make them sell the company partially to bidders potentially such as Walmart and Oracle is completely outrageous and doesn’t make sense unless you’re looking at it from the business side for companies like Walmart and Oracle.
These two companies would effectively enter the world of content creation and reach a whole new audience they can sell to. This is directly caused by the Trump administration to help these two multi billion dollar corporations.
Walmart and Oracle’s main goal here is MONEY. TikTok isn’t a foreclosed home. The Trump administration has made it just that. They put it on the auction block and allowed these two companies to buy it for some nickels and dimes compared to it’s true value.
Here is an excerpt from the executive order signed by President Donald Trump:
“The Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, and the United States Armed Forces have already banned the use of TikTok on Federal Government phones. The Government of India recently banned the use of TikTok and other Chinese mobile applications throughout the country; in a statement, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asserted that they were “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.” American companies and organizations have begun banning TikTok on their devices. The United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security.”
So again, he talks about the threat of National security from TikTok which is a fair point. The fact of the matter is that there have been reports of information being stolen from the popular app. The security no doubt should be heightened. But to attempt and ban the popular app in the United States is complete ludicrous. Security breaches have been executed from sites like Twitter and Facebook. Have they been forced to shut down? NO. So why should TikTok? Does Donald Trump have political motives? It is an election year after all. Does Trump have friends at Walmart and Oracle? Did he have under the table conversations with these CEO’s?
There are better solutions for dealing with TikTok and it’s security. To force the sale of TikTok is not at all the best solution. If I was the Chinese government I’d either work out a deal to make Tiktok a safer platform by working with the United States and their demands for the app to be more secure. If the Trump administration sticks with their guns and tells them to sell or be shut down or make it so the app can’t be downloaded by any new users unless sold to Walmart or Oracle I wouldn’t do it if I was China. No way.
The question is, what will happen if the popular app shuts down even for a few weeks? This can be devastating for the company with millions potentially deleting it from their phones.
It’s been a while since Trump first announced that he was looking into shutting down TikTok in the United States. As the days and weeks press on it seems like that’s even more of a possibility.
Lets face it though, if there was a problem with the food company Goya over national security I think Donald Trump would be a little more lenient. Don’t you think?
