Donald Trump, the President of the United States of America (U.S.A.,) on the 18th of September, announced to ban Chinese applications TikTok and WeChat in the United States.
In regard to this, the Commerce Department of the U.S.A., said it would ban U.S.A., business transactions with Chinese owned social apps WeChat and TikTok on the 20th of September.
Wilbur Ross, the Commerce Secretary, on the 18th of September, said, “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.”
Friday’s announcement from the Commerce Department is an enforcement of Trump’s original executive order from August 6 that gave TikTok 45 days to sell its U.S. business to a U.S. company or face a ban in the U.S. WeChat, which is one of the most popular social messaging apps in the world, is owned by the Chinese company Tencent. TikTok’s parent company is the Chinese company ByteDance. Trump’s executive order cited national security concerns over the Chinese government’s access to user data in those apps to justify the potential ban.
According to the U.S., Government statement, from the 20th of September, the U.S. companies would be banned from distributing WeChat and TikTok.
iStore and Google Play Store would be asked to take down two Chinese owned major platforms.
meaning the two major mobile app stores run by Apple and Google would have to remove the apps from their libraries. The statement also blocks U.S. companies from providing services through WeChat “for the purpose of transferring funds or processing payments within the U.S.”
However, the Commerce Department’s announcement also lays out a separate time frame specific to TikTok, which takes effect on the 12th of November.
The rules include provisions that block U.S. companies from providing internet hosting and services for TikTok. This could be directed at the deal being negotiated between TikTok and Oracle, which would provide cloud services for TikTok if Trump approves, and could give TikTok and Oracle more time to hammer out a deal that will satisfy the president.
Mr. Ross said, “It’s not doing the same thing to TikTok as to WeChat,” Ross said on Fox Business. “…As to TikTok, it’s just upgrades, maintenance things like that, that would be shut down at this stage. The real shutdown would come after November 12 in the event that there is not another transaction. So it’s very different how the way the two are being handled.”
From the 20th of September, TikTok and WeChat would be banned in the United States of America.
Stay tuned for further updates.
