Twitter, TikTok held talks about a potential combination

It has been reported by the Wall Street Journal, that Twitter is in initial discussions for a potential combination with TikTok. This step has been discussed after it was announced by US President Donald Trump that it would ban the app as it is a threat to national security.

It was declared by Trump that the known Chinese video app TikTok and social network WeChat are a threat to United States national security, foreign policy, and economy.

45 days were given by Trump to Americans to stop their business with these platforms. Thus a deadline has been set for TikTok’s sale by its Chinese parent firm ByteDance.

Also, Trump has demanded that a substantial portion of the sale go to the U.S Treasury. The primary suitor for TikTok has been Microsoft claiming that it is in talks to purchase the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand operations of the company.

It was reported by the Financial Times that the negotiations have been expanded by Microsoft and now the company is after the entire global operations of the app.

Twitter, is a comparatively smaller company, thus it would have a long-shot bid for TikTok. However, Twitter feels it has an advantage of coming under less antitrust scrutiny than the bigger corporations like Microsoft.

Twitter would need support from other investors if it wishes to complete the combination. Though Twitter, does not permit sharing of videos, most of its posts are regarding short text messages and photos or GIFs.