How a temporary US ban could destroy TikTok

TikTok's interim head Vanessa Pappas said the app saw a drop of over 500,000 daily active users following Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's announcement that Trump was considering a ban. — Reuters

TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, has been racing to avoid a crackdown on its US operations after being at loggerheads with the US government, which has expressed concerns over the handling of personal data by the video app.

While ByteDance is still in talks with US investors, the White House and the Chinese government over how to structure the deal, the Trump administration had sought to ban new downloads of the app from US app stores from Sept 27. A US judge has temporarily blocked that order.