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President Donald Trump said his administration is considering banning the short video app TikTok in the US as one possible way to retaliate against China over its handling of the coronavirus. Trump’s comments on Tuesday came one day after Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said officials were looking at barring the app, whose parent company is China’s ByteDance Ltd.
‘It’s something we’re looking at, yes,’ Trump said when asked in an interview with Gray Television’s Greta Van Susteren about Pompeo’s remarks. ‘It’s a big business. Look, what happened with China with this virus, what they’ve done to this country and to the entire world is disgraceful.’ Trump did not offer any specifics about a potential decision. He said that banning TikTok is ‘one of many ways he is looking to hit back at the Beijing government over the coronavirus, which has infected nearly 3 million people in the US and killed more than 130,000. In a separate but related development, the short-video app is the subject of an inquiry by the US Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department over its data practices, according to a children’s privacy advocate who says he was interviewed by the agencies. Several privacy groups alleged in May that the app, which is popular with teens, was collecting information about children under 13 without parental permission, in violation of both U.S. privacy law and an earlier FTC settlement. The president has seen his poll numbers plummet as his own response to the pandemic has come under widespread criticism, including for his refusal to unequivocally urge Americans to wear masks.
TikTok played up its US ties and said it doesn’t feed user data to China, pushing back against comments by Pompeo, who said the government was weighing a ban in part over concerns about its ownership.
