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Boris Johnson 'gives Chinese app TikTok green light for London HQ' - risking Trump row


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Boris Johnson 'gives Chinese app TikTok green light for London HQ' - risking Trump row
The Prime Minister is understood to have agreed with TikTok owners ByteDance for a new HQ in London, as Donald Trump looks to ban the app in the US over security risk claims
By Ryan Merrifield | 3 AUG 2020

Boris Johnson could be set for an almighty bust-up with Donald Trump after reportedly giving Chinese video sharing app TikTok the green light to relocate to London.

Ministers are said to have given investment the thumbs up, with plans to be revealed within days, reports The Sun.

It comes as President Trump told reporters abroad Air Force One on Friday that he would be using emergency powers to outlaw TikTok in the US.

Over the last several months, US officials have repeatedly said TikTok, under its current Chinese parent company, Beijing-based software firm ByteDance, poses a national risk because of the personal data it handles.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the president will take action shortly on all Chinese software companies that are feeding data directly to Beijing.

"President Trump has said 'enough' and we're going to fix it and so he will take action in the coming days with respect to a broad array of national security risks that are presented by software connected to the Chinese Communist Party," he said on Fox News Channel's 'Sunday Morning Futures'.

Trump did not specify whether he will act through an executive order, or another method, such as a designation, according to NBC News.

TikTok has been in discussions with the UK government over the past few months to locate its headquarters in London, according to reports - as part of a strategy to distance itself from China.

London is among one of several locations the company was understood to have been considering.

It has hired aggressively in California this year, including poaching US-based Kevin Mayer, a former Walt Disney Co executive, to be the new chief executive.

The firm has denied having any ties to the Chinese government.

In response to accusations from the White House, ByteDance is understood to be willing to divest the US operations of TikTok to Microsoft in a bid to make a deal with the Trump administration.

ByteDance was founded by Zhang Yiming and TikTok was created by Alex Zhu in 2017 - with the app not even available in China.

The app has grown more popular during the coronavirus pandemic, with 2 billion downloads in April.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/boris-allows-chinese-app-tiktok-22459212

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What is going on? Aren't Boris Johnson & Dumpster "friends"? :1251: 

So now Boris Johnson saw the huge opportunity and urge TikTok to move their $$$$$ from US to UK! :shock: 

Doesn't Boris Johnson afraid of China stealing UK people's data? like the way he agrees with Dumpster that Huawei is stealing data and send it back to China? :1251: 

I'm CONFUSED!

giphy.gif

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According to Pompeo who accidentally spilled the beans that Dumpster had enough of TikTok 'cos the youngsters used TikTok to tank his election rally in Oklahoma

Quote

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-tulsa.html

TikTok users and fans of Korean pop music groups claimed to have registered potentially hundreds of thousands of tickets for Mr. Trump’s campaign rally as a prank. After the Trump campaign’s official account @TeamTrump posted a tweet asking supporters to register for free tickets using their phones on June 11, K-pop fan accounts began sharing the information with followers, encouraging them to register for the rally — and then not show. :chuckle: 

And also, all the clips on George Floyd and related video were uploaded & shared by millions TikTok users.

Of course that orange clown is mad :chuckle: 

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TikTok Teens Are 'Going to War' Against the Trump Campaign After Republicans Call to Ban the App

BY SHELLY BANJO AND MISYRLENA EGKOLFOPOULOU / BLOOMBERG UPDATED: JULY 10, 2020 10:50 AM EDT | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: JULY 9, 2020 4:53 PM EDT

The TikTok-tivists are at it again.

Thousands of users of the popular video app flocked to the Apple App Store in the last few days to flood U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign app with negative reviews. On Wednesday alone 700 negative reviews were left on the Official Trump 2020 app and 26 positive ones, according to tracking firm Sensor Tower.

TikTok fans are retaliating for Trump’s threats of banning the app, which is owned by China’s Bytedance Ltd. and is hugely popular in the U.S., especially among teens. The thought of taking away a key social and entertainment hub in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to outrage.

“For Gen Z and Millennials, TikTok is our clubhouse and Trump threatened it,” said Yori Blacc, a 19-year-old TikTok user in California who joined in the app protest. “If you’re going to mess with us, we will mess with you.” :chuckle: 

Blacc said the movement gained steam Wednesday when a popular TikTok user, DeJuan Booker, called on his 750,000 followers to seek revenge. He posted a step-by-step primer on how to degrade the app’s rating, notching 5.6 million views. “Gen Z don’t go down without a fight,” said Booker, who goes by @unusualbeing on TikTok. “Let’s go to war.”

The efforts to push the app low enough so that Apple will remove it from the app store may be misguided. Apple doesn’t delete apps based on their popularity. The App Store may review those that violate its guidelines or are outdated, but not if their ratings sink. A similar tactic was tried in April to protest Google Classroom by kids frustrated with quarantine home-schooling.

But young people are looking for ways to make their voices heard, even if some of them can’t yet vote. Last month, many young people organized through TikTok to sign up to attend Trump’s first post-shutdown campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but then didn’t show up. The Trump campaign denied the online organizing effort contributed to lower-than-expected attendance.

The Trump campaign and Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. TikTok was experiencing connectivity issues on Thursday, according to Downdector, which measures web traffic.

Trump’s re-election smartphone app is a big part of the president’s unrivaled digital operation and was meant to circumvent tech companies like Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. and give the campaign a direct line to supporters. The app has helped the campaign engage Trump’s die-hard supporters, especially in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, by feeding them his latest tweets and promoting virtual events. Supporters can donate to the president’s campaign or earn rewards for recruiting friends like VIP seats to rallies or photos with the president.

The Official Trump 2020 app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times on Google’s Android store as of June 15. Apple doesn’t publish information on downloads.

Reviews with titles such as “Terrible App” or “Do Not Download!” have been flooding the App Store since late June. Official Trump 2020 now has more than 103,000 one-star reviews for an overall rating of 1.2.

But the uptick of activity has also caused the app to rise in rankings. Users have to download the app to review it, vaulting it to second place on the Apple store from No. 486 on Tuesday, according to Sensor Tower.

“Do I think that this is going to fundamentally change the election? No,” said Tim Lim, a veteran Democratic digital strategist. “But it goes to show that they are just as susceptible to these mass actions as anyone else. Trump is starting to see what it feels like to have a massive online army committed to defeating him.”

Trump earlier this week said his administration is considering banning TikTok as one way to retaliate against China over its handling of the coronavirus. Trump’s comments came after Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told Americans not to download the app unless they want to see their private information fall into “the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.” Bytedance is also facing a U.S. national security review for its acquisition of startup Musical.ly. It has denied allegations that it poses a threat to U.S. national security.

Trump didn’t offer specifics about a potential decision and Pompeo seemed to walk back the idea of a ban in a later statement, saying that the U.S. efforts to protect American consumers’ data don’t relate to any one particular company.

Many TikTok users say they care less about potential Chinese snooping and more about Trump taking away their digital hangout. In the U.S., TikTok has been downloaded more than 165 million times, according to Sensor Tower.

“I don’t believe Trump is trying to take TikTok away because of national security, but more to retaliate against activism on the app and all the videos about him that drag him through the mud,” said Darius Jackson, an 18-year-old TikTok user in Champaign, Illinois, who asked his followers Wednesday to give Trump’s app a one-star rating.

“This is the first year I’ll be able to vote and I think activism on TikTok is going to make a big difference,” Jackson said.

https://time.com/5865261/tiktok-trump-campaign-app/

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2 hours ago, VogueMusic said:

If Millennials and Gen Z on tiktok want to send Trump a message, there's one way to do it... VOTE.

Exactly.  If they have time to film themselves on apps, they have time to get out and vote. Anyone who does not bother to vote,  has no right to complain about decisions that affect their lives. Really depressing to read that are more worried about losing their “ clubhouse to hang out “ then other issues.

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3 hours ago, VogueMusic said:

If Millennials and Gen Z on tiktok want to send Trump a message, there's one way to do it... VOTE.

Nah, they dont bother doing that.

MD7z3rEoVJZ5CTRrspMTcdhlzegrEV9SSwq0QZlJ

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...

TikTok has nothing to do with that, tbqh. China does.

Sad and dangerous, really. Can't believe Trump will be there for another 4 years. This world gets more and more frightening each day. You see things you would never thought you would see one day in your life.

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18 hours ago, runa said:

TikTok has nothing to do with that, tbqh. China does.

Sad and dangerous, really. Can't believe Trump will be there for another 4 years. This world gets more and more frightening each day. You see things you would never thought you would see one day in your life.

You should all get out and vote him out. USA, no matter how much its influence has diminished under Trump, still matters on worlds stage and can affect the world at large.

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