Donald Trump says he is banning TikTok from the United States

As reported by NBC News, President Trump has said that he will use his power to ban the Chinese video-sharing social networking platform TikTok from the United States.

The POTUS made the comments on Friday night while aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington following a fundraising trip to Florida. He said:

"As far as TikTok is concerned we’re banning them from the United States."

Trump then described the ban as "severance" and revealed that he could sign an order as soon as today (Saturday, August 1). He added: "Well, I have that authority. It’s going to be signed tomorrow."

"I can do it with an executive order or that," the President said, referring to emergency economic powers.

TikTok is a video-sharing social media service owned by the Beijing-based internet technology company ByteDance.

ByteDance launched TikTok back in 2017, and after purchasing Musical.ly - a video service popular with teens in the US and Europe - and combined the two.

The platform currently has roughly 800 million active users worldwide, and allows its users to create short dance, lip-sync, comedy, or talent videos, as well as simply sharing moments of their day-to-day lives.

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In response to President Trump's comments, a spokesperson for TikTok said in a statement:

"We've hired nearly 1,000 people to our US team this year alone, and are proud to be hiring another 10,000 employees into great paying jobs across the US.

"Our $1 billion creator fund supports US creators who are building livelihoods from our platform."

The spokesperson added that the company is committed to the privacy of its 100 million users in the US, saying:

"TikTok US user data is stored in the US, with strict controls on employee access. TikTok's biggest investors come from the US. We are committed to protecting our users' privacy and safety as we continue working to bring joy to families and meaningful careers to those who create on our platform."

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In addition, the American Civil Liberties Union tweeted that Trump's plan was "a danger to free expression."

Per The Washington Post, Trump's comments come after he signed an order forcing ByteDance to sell the US portion of social network TikTok due to national security concerns.

Sky News states that the US has long accused China of stealing the intellectual property of US citizens, costing the economy billions of dollars and thousands of residents their jobs. Beijing has strongly denied these accusations.

Microsoft is understood to be in the lead to acquire the platform's US service but has yet to release a statement on Trump's recent comments.