New York University recently opened its TikTok account (@meetnyu) with the goal of increasing their appearances for Millennials. In the meanwhile, Instagram just launched the TikTok-style platform named Reels and Mark Zuckerberg is allegedly throwing hundreds and thousands of money to have TikTok influencers on board. Would Reels will win over the Tik Tok? Or as Trump suggested, would TikTok will be the U.S. company under the Microsoft umbrella and be a part of the big U.S. 3 social media platforms-Facebook, Youtube, Microsoft-TikTok?
In the last blog post, President Trump’s remark on only hiring Americans for federal agencies was discussed. The remark was ended with the QnA sessions where Trump mentioned about Tiktok and COVID-19. This short question and answer time give us insights on how TikTok will be used in the United States and how the COVID-19 situation will play out. Would international students be able to go back to schools next year? Would more and more colleges and universities open up the account to communicate with prospective and current students? Trump’s answers below will give you ideas.
Contents
- Trump says “Buy the whole Tiktok, and give the U.S. some money”
- Trump “We are doing a great job, but I don’t agree with Fauci”
Trump says “Buy the whole Tiktok, and give the U.S. some money”
TikTok, one of the fastest-growing social media, has been making lots of issues around the world. Stemming from the conflict between India and China, Tik Tok has been banned in India. Similarly, due to security reasons, Trump and the White House are attempting to ban Tik Tok to be downloaded and used in the United States. Although the CEO of Tik Tok, a former head of streaming at Disney, made it clear that he won’t provide user-related information to the Chinese government, the White House has outspokenly against the Tik Tok.
On the other hand, Microsoft, which successfully transformed into a crowdsourcing company, showed their interest to buy Tik Tok. For Microsoft, Tik Tok might be a great way to expand their businesses and attain data of Millenials. According to the remark, Trump met the CEO of Microsft and shared his thoughts on not only buying the whole company but also paying the substantial portion of the money to the United States. The main argument of Trump is that Microsoft needs to pay the U.S. government (Treasury) because the government (Trump) is helping them to make the deal happen. It does sound like a businessman, isn’t it?
When Trump projected his plan to ban Tik Tok, some people assumed it is to help Microsoft or any American company, which has capacity and interest in buying Tik Tok, to make a better deal. This assumption was backed by Trump’s statement; “because without the United States, they don’t have anything — at least having to do with the 30 percent.” Currently, Trump set the date to September 15th to suspend Tik Tok in the United States. It would be interesting to see if Microsoft will buy the entire Tik Tok business and pay a substantial portion to the U.S.
But it’s not a great asset in the United States unless they have the approval of the United States. So it’ll close down on September 15th, unless Microsoft or somebody else is able to buy it and work out a deal — an appropriate deal. So the Treasury of the — really, the Treasury, I guess you would say, of the United States gets a lot of money. A lot of money. Okay?
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP IN A MEETING WITH U.S. TECH WORKERS AND SIGNING OF AN EXECUTIVE ORDER ON HIRING AMERICAN
Trump “We are doing a great job, but I don’t agree with Fauci”
Around 500 to 1,000 people are dying every day due to COVID-19 in the United States. Regarding this, the question was raised “why does the U.S. have so many deaths?” Trump says the virus “was released by China,” “we have done a great job in this country,” and “the task force has not been given the kind of credit.”
There was another question, “why so many of the public health experts on the coronavirus task force are contradicting you on things like why the virus is so widespread in this country, on the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine?” and Trump says “we are doing a great job.” In regards to the efficacy of Hydroxy, the drug which has been used for malaria and lupus, he sees the potential to treat COVID-19, as he took it for 2 weeks and he had no side effects and he was tested negative. Two renowned coronavirus task force members, Dr. Fauci and Admiral Giroir believe it doesn’t work and Trump answers “I don’t agree with Fauci on everything.”
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think we’re doing a great job. I think we’re doing great on vaccines. We’re doing great on therapeutics. You’ll be seeing that very soon.
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP IN A MEETING WITH U.S. TECH WORKERS AND SIGNING OF AN EXECUTIVE ORDER ON HIRING AMERICAN
In this post, Trump’s thoughts on Tiktok and COVID-19 were summarized, based on his recent remark. If TikTok becomes one of the U.S. social media platforms, I can see that more and more universities will create accounts to promote their college programs to the younger generation.
On the other hand, unless the virus is under control during the next couple of months, I honestly think U.S. colleges and universities would not be able to open as usual through the Spring 2021 intake, which would make more international students confused and worried. I hear more and more foreign students go back to their home country after graduation as it is not safe or not easy to find jobs in the U.S. Hope this situation gets better and better.
