The US will ban downloads of TikTok and WeChat social networking apps from Sunday 20th September 2020 according to the Trump administration. This comes as the companies, the US, and Chinese authorities were unable to come to an agreement to allow the apps to continue their operations in the US.
“Today’s actions prove once again that President Trump will do everything in his power to guarantee our national security and protect Americans from the threats of the Chinese Communist Party. At the President’s direction, we have taken significant action to combat China’s malicious collection of American citizens’ personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of U.S. laws and regulations,” said US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a statement.
According to Reuters, the ban would bar Apple and Google from making both WeChat and TikTok available in their app stores for US users. The companies can still, however, offer them to users outside of the US.
US-based companies would also not be barred from conducting business with the Chinese apps. Meaning Walmart and Starbucks can continue to allow users to make transactions through WeChat.
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The Trump administration issued an executive order banning the apps labeling them security threats.
“There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance Ltd., an exempted company with limited liability incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands (“ByteDance”), through acquiring all interests in musical.ly, an exempted company with limited liability incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands (“Musical.ly”), might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,” Trump wrote in the executive order.
The ban was to take effect in 45 days from the order but was later extended to 90 days. It is, however, unclear why this element of the ban is coming to play on the deadline of the first extension. The 90 days extension should lapse on 12th November 2020.
The extension requires ByteDance and Tencent to destroy any TikTok and WeChat data from US users after the ban. It has to report to the Committee on Foreign Investment once all the data has been destroyed. ByteDance also has to destroy any data collected from TikTok’s predecessor Musical.ly. ByteDance bought Musical.ly in 2017. The first executive order that had the 45-day deadline didn’t include these requirements.
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