Trump’s TikTok Assault Opens New Front in Tech War With China
- Threats to ban Chinese apps risk splitting the internet
- ‘How can Chinese companies ever do business in America?’
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By going after TikTok, the U.S. is expanding a fight against Beijing using Chinese-style restrictions on tech companies in a move that could potentially have enormous ramifications for the world’s biggest economies.
The Trump administration’s threat to ban ByteDance Ltd.’s viral teen phenom and other Chinese-owned apps could significantly hamper their access global user data, which is an immensely valuable resource in a modern internet economy. Any U.S. decision on a wider restriction, which Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said would come “shortly,” is likely to be followed by a similar pressure campaign that prompted some allies to ban Huawei Technologies Co. from 5G networks.