
More Americans agree than disagree with Donald Trump’s recent executive order threatening to ban ByteDance-owned short video app TikTok, if it is not sold to a U.S. firm, according to a Reuters-Ipsos national poll published on Monday.
The poll, which surveyed 1,349 adults across the U.S., founded that 40% of respondents backed Trump’s threat, while 30% opposed it. The remaining 30% said that they did not know either way.
Among Republicans, 69% backed the executive order but only 32% said they were familiar with TikTok. However, only 21% of respondents who identified as Democrats showed support for the order with 46% being familiar with the app.
Just 38% of all respondents said that they were either “very” or “somewhat familiar” with TikTok, while 25% said they had watched videos using it. 35% said that they had heard about it but not used it.
Last week, ByteDance filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to challenge the president’s efforts to ban TikTok’s U.S. operations after what it described as a failure in negotiations with the U.S. government to find a solution.
Microsoft, Oracle and Walmart are among American companies that have shown an interest in buying TikTok’s U.S. business.
Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)
Related: China Fights Back With Potential Spoiler for U.S. TikTok Takeover

