Credit: Reuters

If the deal falls through, the app may be banned outright.

Social media app TikTok, a short video and music platform popular with teenage users, has drawn scrutiny from the US government recently due to its origins in China. President Donald Trump recently floated the idea of banning the use of the app in the US, but that idea drew negative attention from American youth. In order to reach a compromise, the government has turned to Microsoft to incorporate TikTok into American technology.


Microsoft announced on Sunday that it is currently in talks with ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to purchase the rights to the app. According to Microsoft, these talks have the backing of the US government, and should a deal be closed by a deadline of September 15, the process will begin to migrate all of TikTok’s US user data to US soil, though TikTok spokespeople have repeatedly insisted that US user data is already in the US.

“This new structure would build on the experience TikTok users currently love, while adding world-class security, privacy, and digital safety protections,” Microsoft said regarding the hypothetical switchover. “The operating model for the service would be built to ensure transparency to users as well as appropriate security oversight by governments in these countries.”

Credit: Elaine Thompson/AP

Despite the government at large backing the deal, President Trump has voiced his opposition, still believing that banning the app is the best course of action. Nevertheless, he is willing to wait the full 45 days for a deal to close before taking action, according to a Reuters report.

In addition to calming some US-China tensions, acquiring TikTok would put Microsoft in a more advantageous position regarding social technologies. It would also, however, put their partnership with Facebook in an awkward position, since Facebook has long considered ByteDance and TikTok rivals. Facebook representatives have not yet commented on the company’s feelings toward Microsoft’s deal.