Whats happening?
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Recently, the Trump administration has announced their intention to ban the popular social media application TikTok. The Trump administration claims this is on the grounds of national security, accusing TikTok of being an agent of the Chinese Communist Party. TikTok denies these claims and counters with statistics of American ownership/employment. As a result, TikTok is currently in a fire sale mode in the financial markets - with potential buyers being Microsoft amongst other tech giants.


How will he do this?
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What specific legal mechanisms will the Trump administration use to enforce this ban?


Are there any restrictions?
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What conditions must be met in order for the executive branch of the government to employ these mechanisms? Can these mechanisms be arbitrarily leveraged by the current/future President? Do these same laws apply to domestic companies?


**Would it be plausible for these same legislative mechanisms to be used in the future for the purpose of selecting winners/losers in the tech industry at the personal discretion of the President?**


For example: *banning Twitter on the grounds of national security and force it to sell to another domestic platform that is more aligned with the president's world view?*



How will Trump ban TikTok? And are there any restrictions on these mechanisms being arbitrarily applied to other companies?