A major rival to Facebook and Google is about to be taken out by … Microsoft? At least, it’s a distinct possibility that the enterprise tech giant will soon be a social media superstar after Microsoft announced it was pursuing talks to buy TikTok’s U.S. operations from Chinese parent company ByteDance.

The whole saga has been layered in a thick film of politics since President Trump said last week he planned to ban the short-form video app from operating in the United States. Trump has insisted that TikTok is a national security concern and could be feeding Americans’ data to the Chinese government. TikTok has adamantly denied that, but Trump persisted in his threats to find a way to either ban the app or force ByteDance to divest its ownership in the U.S.  

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