Facebook Bosses Worry That TikTok's Ban Will Affect Its Platform

CEO Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg (Instagram @markzuckerberg)

JAKARTA - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed concern about the implications of banning the TikTok application in the United States (US). This is known after US President Donald Trump again issued a threat to TikTok, if it did not agree to be acquired by a company from the US.

"I just think it's a very bad long-term precedent, and it needs to be handled with care and we have to have whatever solution is there. I'm really worried. This could have long-term consequences in other countries around the world," Zuckerberg said. quoted from BuzzFeed News, Friday 7 August.

Zuckerberg also discussed TikTok, which was banned in India in June, and is currently under attack. He mentioned that it is undeniable that Facebook products can be targeted by other countries at a later date.

"I believe there is a valid national security question about having apps that have lots of data on people who follow other countries' rules, a government that is increasingly seen as a competitor," Zuckerberg said.

Seeing that Zuckerberg's concerns are very serious, an employee then asked, is Facebook interested in acquiring TikTok? Unfortunately, Zuckerberg declined to comment on the company's business dealings.

Currently, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is looking for suitable offers until September 15. If they don't meet that deadline, Trump said he would impose a national ban on the video-sharing app.

According to a recent report, TikTok as a whole has a sale and purchase value of between US $ 30 billion to US $ 50 billion. Meanwhile, Microsoft has made offers with a value ranging between 10 billion US dollars and 30 billion US dollars.

As is well known, Microsoft has suddenly emerged as a frontrunner in the discussion, and has confirmed that it is interested in buying TikTok operations in the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Since TikTok came to the US in 2018, the platform has become a dominant force, outperforming US-based apps and having attracted a younger audience, such as Facebook's Instagram.

A Facebook representative said in July 2019 that TikTok was one of its main competitors. Since then, Facebook has been racing to work on competing features of its own to overtake TikTok.

This has also made many platforms like Instagram launch a feature for making short video features called Instagram Reels. It is likely that Instagram wants to look for opportunities if TikTok is later banned from operating in the US.