At this point, the tension between TikTok and the Trump administration seems like old news.
SecureWorld News has covered the controversy surrounding the social media platform since April.
But on Air Force One last Friday, Trump made his stance on the app clear to reporters: "As far as TikTok is concerned, we're banning them from the United States."
From there, the timeline has only exploded.
Sunday: Mike Pompeo says Trump will 'take action' on TikTok
Mere days after Trump's announcement, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took to the Sunday morning news shows.
This is what he had to say, according to CNN:
"Here's what I hope that the American people will come to recognize — these Chinese software companies doing business the United States, whether it's TikTok or WeChat, there are countless more... are feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party, their national security apparatus — could be their facial recognition pattern, it could be information about their residence, their phone numbers, their friends, who they're connected to."
He ended things with a hint at quick actions from the executive branch.
"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."
But Pompeo was far from the only federal government official making statements regarding TikTok on Sunday:
"Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday that there was bipartisan agreement that TikTok could not stay in its current format 'because it risks sending back information on 100 million Americans,' referencing the concern that American user data will end up in the hands of the Chinese government.
He noted Republicans and Democrats, including Sens. Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, were all in agreement."
But the Sunday TikTok bombshells continued to break.
Because the same day, Microsoft confirmed plans to try to purchase the app's U.S. operations.
Is Microsoft going to buy Tik Tok?
In a Sunday blogpost, the company said it has informed the White House that it is in ongoing discussions to purchase TikTok from the platform's parent company, ByteDance.
"This new structure would build on the experience TikTok users currently love, while adding world-class security, privacy, and digital safety protections. The operating model for the service would be built to ensure transparency to users as well as appropriate security oversight by governments in these countries."
And what's more, Microsoft hopes to eliminate previously-collected data stored in areas outside the U.S.
"Among other measures, Microsoft would ensure that all private data of TikTok's American users is transferred to and remains in the United States. To the extent that any such data is currently stored or backed-up outside the United States, Microsoft would ensure that this data is deleted from servers outside the country after it is transferred."
What do you think about Microsoft's plan?
For its part, Microsoft says it is done publicly discussing the deal until it reaches a decision on the acquisition.
