The President of the United States, Donald Trump has signed two executive orders that will have a major impact on two globally popular apps, TikTok and WeChat. The move is expected to further deepen the rift between the U.S and China which has already affected several Chinese tech giants such as Huawei and ZTE.
Through these new executive orders, U.S companies and individuals will not be allowed to do business with TikTok and WeChat or their respective owners. The orders also stated that the ban will take place in 45 days.
According to these orders, President Trump claimed that both apps are threatening U.S national security, foreign policy, and economy. On top of that, he further added that these apps have been collecting a lot of information from users including location data, browsing habits and search history that can be used to track government officials and contractors as well as for blackmail and industrial espionage.
Additionally, President Trump has also accused that the ruling Chinese Communist Party is using both apps to its advantage by having them to censor contents deemed as politically damning. At this moment, TikTok and WeChat have yet to provide any comments regarding the ban orders from Trump although it has been widely known that Microsoft is now in the midst of a discussion with ByteDance to acquire TikTok’s operations in the United States.
