Internet sector in US calcified; Twitter & FB 'not fun': Chinese stooge bats for TikTok

After US President Donald Trump on Friday (local time) said that his administration may ban Chinese video-sharing application TikTok, and amid Microsoft confirming that it is in the race to acquire TikTok as well, the Editor of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mouthpiece Global Times has reacted by saying that banning TikTok will make US' "internet duller"

'Banning TikTok will make US internet duller'

Hu Xijin, Editor-in-Chief of Global Times, on Sunday said that the internet sector of the United States has been "calcified". He claimed that to young people, Facebook, Twitter etc have been somewhat old-fashioned, inconvenient to use and not fun. "New internet giants and applications constantly emerge in China. Banning TikTok will make US internet duller," the Chinese stooge said.

'We may be banning TikTok'

"We are looking at TikTok, we may be banning TikTok. We may be doing some other things, we have a couple of options... But we are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok," the US President said. This comes after President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the US government is thinking about imposing a ban on TikTok. "We are looking at TikTok," Trump said when asked about possibly banning the Chinese application. "We are thinking about making a decision."

READ | Reports: Trump to order China's ByteDance to sell TikTok

Meanwhile, amid worsening relations between Washington and Beijing, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said that the Chinese software companies doing business in the United States are feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

READ | TikTok says its 'not going anywhere' as Trump indicates towards banning Chinese app

"These Chinese software companies doing business in the United States, whether it's TikTok or WeChat - there are countless more," Pompeo said on Fox News quoting White House trade adviser Peter Navarro "are feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party, their national security apparatus". 

READ | Why does Donald Trump want to ban TikTok? Concerns around the short-video app explained

"It could be their facial recognition pattern. It could be information about their residence, their phone numbers, their friends, who they're connected to. Those are the issues that President Trump has made clear we're going to take care of. These are true national security issues. They are true privacy issues for the American people," he said.

The US politicians have repeatedly criticised TikTok, owned by Beijing-based startup ByteDance, of being a threat to national security because of its ties to China.

READ | TikTok in advanced stages to be acquired by Microsoft after Trump considers banning app

(With ANI inputs)