Microsoft reportedly in talks to buy TikTok in U.S.

President Trump said on Friday that he was considering taking steps that would effectively ban TikTok from the United States, and Bloomberg reported that the president was planning to order the app’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell its U.S. operations.

“We are looking at TikTok,” President Trump told reporters. “We may be banning TikTok. We are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok.”

That news triggered reports that Microsoft is in talks to acquire the popular social video app in the U.S. (Insert requisite Clippy or Zune joke here . . . )

Last year, Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes asked in Fast Company if TikTok was a timebomb, writing, “TikTok’s ascent comes at a moment when user privacy and the weaponization of data has been thrust into the spotlight.”