The past few weeks have been very tough for the famous short-form video app, TikTok. Suddenly there are investors offering deals to its parent company, ByteDance, and there are talks that it should be sold out while it is minting money for its parent company and has managed to turn it into a true Chinese conglomerate. The United States of America had a key role in initiating and perpetuating the whole fiasco. President Donald Trump is especially very keen on taking interest in the matter of an app, which is quite ironically amusing and pretty alarming for ByteDance at least.
Last week, he said that TikTok shall be banned, but later, he changed his stance and gave a deadline of 15th September to ByteDance to sell off TikTok by then, otherwise its operations and business will come to an end in the US. Amongst many investors and bidders, Microsoft is also in talks to acquire TikTok.
While ByteDance is facing immense pressure from everywhere, Donald Trump flipped on his easy stance again and came up with a ludicrous opinion. He says that since he played a major role in carrying out this deal and giving momentum and acceleration to the whole process of cornering TikTok and ByteDance, so now, whoever buys it shall give a ‘substantial portion’ of the sale money to the Treasury of the US government!
When he was asked why he thinks that the government should get any cut from the sale of an app, he said that it is a situation that resembles that of a landlord and a tenant. Without a lease, the tenant is nothing and has no rights. Therefore, by saying this, he kind of implied that the USA is the landlord, TikTok is the tenant, and now the landlord wants to kick out the tenant and no one can stop him or say anything. So, the tenant TikTok has to pay some 'key money,' or they pay something to reimburse the landlord United States, and the US should be paid a substantial amount of money because without the United States they don't have anything.
This whole idea is quite pathetic, and the Chinese media are infuriated, to say the least. And their anger is justified. First, Donald Trump attempts to thwart their app, cause so much trouble for the company, and then start giving infuriating statements and remarks like that.
The editor-in-chief of the Chinese Global Times, Hu Xijin called this ‘an open robbery’ in a recent tweet. He further said that the world is watching this crazy behavior of the President, God is also watching how this President is turning great America into a rogue country.
While Microsoft is interested in buying the company, Apple on the other hand does not want to acquire it. Apple clearly stated its stance, denying the rumors, reported Axios.
Read next: TikTok’s parent company ByteDance accuses Facebook of plagiarism following a critical remark by Mark Zuckerberg
Last week, he said that TikTok shall be banned, but later, he changed his stance and gave a deadline of 15th September to ByteDance to sell off TikTok by then, otherwise its operations and business will come to an end in the US. Amongst many investors and bidders, Microsoft is also in talks to acquire TikTok.
While ByteDance is facing immense pressure from everywhere, Donald Trump flipped on his easy stance again and came up with a ludicrous opinion. He says that since he played a major role in carrying out this deal and giving momentum and acceleration to the whole process of cornering TikTok and ByteDance, so now, whoever buys it shall give a ‘substantial portion’ of the sale money to the Treasury of the US government!
When he was asked why he thinks that the government should get any cut from the sale of an app, he said that it is a situation that resembles that of a landlord and a tenant. Without a lease, the tenant is nothing and has no rights. Therefore, by saying this, he kind of implied that the USA is the landlord, TikTok is the tenant, and now the landlord wants to kick out the tenant and no one can stop him or say anything. So, the tenant TikTok has to pay some 'key money,' or they pay something to reimburse the landlord United States, and the US should be paid a substantial amount of money because without the United States they don't have anything.
This whole idea is quite pathetic, and the Chinese media are infuriated, to say the least. And their anger is justified. First, Donald Trump attempts to thwart their app, cause so much trouble for the company, and then start giving infuriating statements and remarks like that.
The editor-in-chief of the Chinese Global Times, Hu Xijin called this ‘an open robbery’ in a recent tweet. He further said that the world is watching this crazy behavior of the President, God is also watching how this President is turning great America into a rogue country.
While Microsoft is interested in buying the company, Apple on the other hand does not want to acquire it. Apple clearly stated its stance, denying the rumors, reported Axios.
Read next: TikTok’s parent company ByteDance accuses Facebook of plagiarism following a critical remark by Mark Zuckerberg
