Ten years ago, the idea that a gay dating app or a video-sharing app popular with teens could pose a national security risk would have seemed ludicrous. Today, Grindr and TikTok—along with countless other less famous companies that never thought of themselves as intersecting with national security—are at the center of a geopolitical standoff. U.S. President Donald Trump and many European governments are trying to ban foreign ownership of strategic firms, and these popular apps are being swept up into the mix. But banning is the easy part. Who’s going to buy companies if the Chinese and their ilk are not allowed to?
I bet you didn’t know that the social media personality Addison Rae is now TikTok’s top earner, beating out fellow stars Charli D’Amelio and Loren Gray. Most of us over the age of 20 don’t follow the latest trends on the app. We simply know that on Aug. 6 Trump signed two executive orders banning TikTok and WeChat, another popular messaging app based in China, on the grounds that they “threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.” Around the same time, he conducted what amounted to a public negotiation for the sale of TikTok to Microsoft. Since then, Oracle—backed by venture capitalists—has reportedly entered the takeover race as well.
