The US Department of Commerce has effectively banned TikTok and WeChat in support of Trump’s announcement last month. The two apps were accused of collecting a large amount of personal data from users and are subject to be shared with China’s Communist Party on demand. And since there’s no change in their routine even after the warning, all transactions related to them in the US were banned.
The US Bans Transacting With WeChat and TikTok
The US president and several cybersecurity agencies have long warned about potential threats from using Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat. Since they collect sensitive user data and are closely tied to the Chinese government, they may be dictated to share the personal data of users on-demand, as per the US accusations. This can harm the US economy and people in critical times.
Considering these threatening the national security, Trump’s administration has warned TikTok’s parent ByteDance and WeChat’s Tencent to make changes in their mechanisms. Also, TikTok was especially warned about being banned in the US altogether or given an option to sell its US operations to a local company. While this entertained Microsoft and Oracle for a while, ByteDance hasn’t reached a conclusion yet.
Regarding WeChat, Trump warned about removing the app from appstores completely if not complied. And the time has home. The Commerce Department has yesterday announced the banishment of transactions with WeChat and TikTok, also removal of apps from all the Appstores in the US. While the ban on WeChat is effective starting yesterday, TikTok has the chance until November 12 to make modifications.
The order dictates Appstores to remove both apps from their platforms and prohibits money payments made through WeChat in the US. This ban is limited to the US region and not to other countries. The utilisation of those apps code is banned and the peer-to-peer sharing or serving them on the internet means is also prohibited. Read the full announcement here.
