Huge relief for the gamers as the Tencent ban by President Trump will not affect Fortnite, League of Legends, or any other games. Epic Games, Riot Games, and the fans of other franchises can also take a sigh of relief. An order to ban TikTok and WeChat was issued due to which the gamers went haywire. Everyone was worried as the EO’s words confused everyone whether the gaming companies will also be affected by this announcement. Recently, Dean of the Los Angeles Times, Sam August poured oil on the troubled waters as he made a statement on Twitter. His tweet cleared the bleak wording in the document of which people around were afraid.
It said that the TikTok ban will be effective within the next 45 days. Now everything is dependent on Microsoft’s acquisition of the US branch. If it happens, the government will uplift the ban and the users will no longer have to worry about it. The written statement issued by President Trump stated how the Chinese Communist Party will have access to the Americans’ personal and exclusive information if allowed to threaten on the basis of data collection. It will give China the power to locate Federal contractors and employees. They could conduct corporate surveillance and also be able to build and collect personal data against someone for blackmail.
Video game companies owned by Tencent will NOT be affected by this executive order!
White House official confirmed to the LA Times that the EO only blocks transactions related to WeChat
So Riot Games (League of Legends), Epic Games (Fortnite), et al are safe
(pending updates)
— Sam Dean 🦅 (@SamAugustDean) August 7, 2020
What was TikTok’s response to President Trump’s statement?
In response to the news of the ban, TikTok’s US General Manager Vanessa Pappas also issued a statement. She thanked the millions of users from America who used TikTok every day. She added how their content and creativity brought joy into everyone’s lives. It also said in her message that they were not planning to go anywhere. Apart from this, she said that TikTok is a home for the artists and creators to express their talents, ideas and help them connect to individuals across different backgrounds from all over the world.
She expressed her gratitude towards the 1500+ US employees who worked on this app daily. They are also planning to provide people with 10,000+ jobs in the US within the next three years. TikTok has announced a US creators fund. It will be providing $1 billion to support the creators across the country. As appealing as it may sound, this might just be a step to let the US government believe in letting the app stay. Concerning the security issues, Vanessa promised the users that they are building the safest app. She concluded her message by saying they are here for the long run and want the users of the US to share their voice against President Trump’s decision.
Will TikTok give into President Trump’s orders? Will they sell their office in the US to Microsoft? Stay tuned to find out more about this.