Then on Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News that action would be taken in the coming days to address "national security risks that are presented by software connected to the Chinese Communist Party", including the short-form video app.

So, how might a ban work?

One obvious starting place would be to order Apple and Google to remove the app from their online stores.

This might be done by adding TikTok's owner Bytedance to a Commerce Department entity list, and forbidding US firms from working with it - a similar tactic was used to stop Google providing its apps to Huawei.

Read MORE

BBC NEWS