Trump to take action on Chinese software companies to limit security, privacy risks: Pompeo News
nikuga / Pixabay
Trump to take action on Chinese software companies to limit security, privacy risks: Pompeo

In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said  that President Donald Trump would take action in the coming days on Chinese software companies doing business in the United States, citing national security risks and the privacy of Americans.

Pompeo said Chinese software companies such as TikTok and WeChat “are feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party.” He asserted that surveillance is taking place by using facial recognition patterns and information about American citizens’ residence, phone numbers, and friends.

On Friday, President Trump said that he plans to ban TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform, from operating in the United States. The President said he could use “emergency economic powers or an executive order” to ban TikTok from the United States. According to the New York Times, Microsoft is in the midst of plans to acquire TikTok operations in the United States. The news about the acquisition plans came after the Trump administration put TikTok under scrutiny.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in an interview Sunday with ABC’s “This Week” that TikTok cannot stay in its current form due to the “risks of sending back information on 100 million Americans.”