Competition is growing: In the wake of the US president's threat, a new report claims that Twitter is in talks with the Chinese social network • Last week Microsoft confirmed it is expressing interest in the acquisition

• Photo: Yinon Ben-Shoshan

Competition for Microsoft? Twitter is in contact for a possible merger with Tiktok, the popular Chinese video app, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. According to the publication, which comes from parties involved in the details, the negotiations between the parties deal with the activities of the social network in the United States.

The Chinese corporation BateDance, the owner of the Tiktok app, has in recent weeks been in negotiations for a possible acquisition with Microsoft as well. Meanwhile, a possible deal between the parties could run into obstacles because US President Donland Trump imposed a blanket ban on US deals with the Chinese corporation over the weekend. The order will take effect within 45 days during a move that increases tensions with Beijing.

Twitter is considered a much smaller company compared to Microsoft, and according to sources in the Wall Street Journal on the social network, they could argue that the acquisition of Tiktok will increase competition in the market, unlike Microsoft which will be required to show that the move is not intended to increase its power in the technology world.

In Washington, many questions are being raised about how Tiktok users' personal data is stored, and on suspicion that it transmits data on American citizens to the company's servers in China. "The app could be used to publish inaccurate information that is beneficial to the Communist Party of China, and the U.S. must take aggressive action against the owner of Tiktok to maintain national security," Trump wrote Friday.