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Trump to shut off TikTok, WeChat to new U.S. users on Sunday

Published 09/18/2020, 07:35 AM
Updated 09/18/2020, 05:36 PM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Illustration picture of Tiktok with U.S. and Chinese flags

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Illustration picture of Tiktok with U.S. and Chinese flags

By David Shepardson, Echo Wang and Alexandra Alper

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration will ban WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok from U.S. app stores starting Sunday night, a move that will block Americans from downloading the Chinese-owned platforms over concerns they pose a national security threat.

The bans, announced on Friday, affect only new downloads and updates and are less sweeping than expected, particularly for TikTok, giving its parent group ByteDance some breathing space to clinch an agreement over the fate of its U.S. operations.

WeChat, an all-in-one messaging, social media and electronic payment app, faces more severe restrictions from Sunday. Existing TikTok users, on the other hand, will see little change until Nov. 12 when a ban on some technical transactions will kick in, which TikTok said would amount to an effective ban. For a Q&A on the real impact, click

"We disagree with the decision from the Commerce Department, and are disappointed that it stands to block new app downloads from Sunday and ban use of the TikTok app in the U.S. from Nov. 12," the company said in a statement. "We will continue to challenge the unjust executive order."

Trump on Friday did not indicate whether he would back a TikTok deal. He said a deal "could go quickly."

"We have some great options and maybe we can keep a lot of people happy," Trump told reporters. "We have to have the total security from China."

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Fox Business Network that "the basic TikTok will stay intact until Nov. 12."

The ban on new U.S. downloads of the widely popular app could still be rescinded by President Donald Trump before it takes effect if ByteDance seals a deal with Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) that addresses concerns about the security of its users' data.

"This is the right move - ratchet up the pressure on Beijing, protect Americans," said Republican Senator Josh Hawley on Twitter.

The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to purge “untrusted" Chinese apps from U.S. digital networks amid escalating tensions with Beijing on a range of issues from trade and human rights to the battle for tech supremacy.

The ban on WeChat, used by over 1 billion people worldwide, bars the transfer of funds or processing of payments to or from people in the United States through it. Users could also start to experience significantly slower service or sporadic outages from Sunday night.

WeChat developer Tencent Holdings (OTC:TCEHY)' called the order "unfortunate" but said it "will continue to discuss with the government and other stakeholders in the U.S. ways to achieve a long-term solution."

The Commerce Department order bars Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s app store, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc's Google Play and others from offering the apps on any platform "that can be reached from within the United States," a senior Commerce official told Reuters.

While the bans are less dramatic than some had feared, the Commerce Department said it could issue additional orders if it finds "that WeChat’s or TikTok’s illicit behavior is being replicated by another app somehow outside the scope of these executive orders."

Oracle shares closed down 0.3% after initially dropping 1.6% in pre-market trading.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the Commerce order "violates the First Amendment rights of people in the United States by restricting their ability to communicate and conduct important transactions on the two social media platforms."

The order does not ban U.S. companies from doing businesses on WeChat outside the United States, which will be welcome news to U.S. firms like Walmart (NYSE:WMT) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) that use WeChat's embedded 'mini-app' programs to facilitate transactions and engage consumers in China, officials said.

The order will not bar transactions with WeChat owner Tencent's other businesses, including its online gaming operations, and will not prohibit Apple, Google or others from offering TikTok or WeChat apps anywhere outside the United States.

On Friday, a U.S. judge in California declined to block the Commerce Department WeChat order, but set a new hearing for Saturday at 4:30 p.m. EDT to decide whether to issue an emergency order blocking the Commerce order in a suit brought by WeChat users.

The bans are in response to a pair of executive orders issued by Trump on Aug. 6 that gave the Commerce Department 45 days to determine what transactions to block from the apps he deemed pose a national security threat. That deadline expires on Sunday.

Commerce Department officials said they were taking the extraordinary step because of the risks the apps' data collection poses. China and the companies have denied U.S. user data is collected for spying.

Apple and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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TikTok has 100 million users in the United States and is especially popular among younger Americans.

Many TikTok U.S. users did not express alarm over the new restrictions. "It's kind of like the boy who cried wolf," said Carter Kench, a 17-year old from Atlanta, Georgia with 2.4 million followers.

WeChat has had an average of 19 million daily active users in the United States, analytics firms Apptopia said in early August. It is popular among Chinese students, ex-pats and some Americans who have personal or business relationships in China.

The Commerce Department will not seek to compel people in the United States to remove the apps or stop using them. "We are aiming at a top corporate level. We're not going to go out after the individual users," one Commerce official said.

Over time, officials said, the lack of updates will degrade the apps usability.

"The expectation is that people will find alternative ways to do these actions," a senior official said. "We expect the market to act and there will be more secure apps that will fill in these gaps that Americans can trust and that the United States government won't have to take similar actions against."

Commerce is also barring services for WeChat that will significantly reduce the usability and functionality of the app in the United States and halt data hosting within the U.S., content delivery services and networks that can increase functionality.

© Reuters. Illustration picture of Bytedance logo with Chinese and U.S. flags

Commerce will bar the same set of technical transactions for TikTok, but that will not take effect until Nov. 12.

Latest comments

Trump will win again and libs will turn into rasins from all the tears shed lol
Trump has close to zero chance of winning as of now.
I have no skin in the game, nor am I partisan with respect to politics. I'm no fool. Nor am I an American and have any right to express my opinion about whom should occupy the office. But only a fool consumed by arrogance would assume as you have that he has ZERO chance of getting another 4-year term. I don't care either way but would gladly take a wager on your conviction that he'll fail, no matter how badly he performs. You, sir, would not offer me the same. Seems the air is blowing hot in China.
Remember when the US was a “free market?” Pepperidge farms remembers.
It is very easy to get around this. You can still download from the internet. And use VPN...very easy to do. If China's Great Firewall cannot stop YouTube, then it is very easy to use TikTok.
It's not about this and its no way for a company to operate, revenues won't grow. This is about sending the message that other coutries will treat China in the same manner and tactics they use in the expansionist strategy at the cost of everyone else and their IP. China says it wants true partnership. This is why companies are forced to merge and handover their IP and allow them into their books and in their boardrooms. Now the rest of the world should do the same to Chinese companies. Then maybe China will open up properly and become transparent. Perhaps many years from now Chinese will have less repression and a better life.
Simply everyone downloads it before Sunday, to reserve our freedom to play as we like.
Till America serves up more of what China does to people who get around this. Tik Tock Tik Tock Boom. They'll fold and do as the Administration wants. Same as any greedy corporation who goes to China and bows, then hands over the keys to the kingdom for a pile of cash. But wait, its this what China wants, true PARTNERSHIP! :P
The world woke up to China's global spying efforts and its plausible deniability strategies. Perhaps the fact debt-trap diplomacy and installing Manchurian political candidates on foreign soil and its expansionist aspirations have made it's intent clear. No other nations are doing this to China. To the Chinese vociferous children on this thread a little history: When the Huawei founder stated that no sovereign nation should ever allow a foreign power or company to manufacture or install its telco infrastructure, as it's tantamount to impeding the augmentation a sovereign military power to control the nation's communications. This was stated right before China's administration granted him its first military contract. ;) It's about time the world does as you do. Pot Kettle Black!
For all the Chinese complainers using derogatory descriptors of the US president because it's so unfair, really? So, in your country everything is rosy? Oh, and your president allows foreign companies to do what exactly in China? Yep, transparent free-market economy in China. Not to mention, free from repression.
The Orange Orangutan is dropping the market now....
don't be a racist
Welcome to North Korea, comrades! First it was socialistic government spending deficits like never before. That was followed by the feds intentionally letting 200,000 American perish from a virus. Then federal troops were sent in to go after American citizens engaged in their first amendment rights to free speech and assembly. Yes, welcome to North Korea, everyone. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
gosh..I can't believe how much greater america is today than it was four years ago.. with all the new manufacturing jobs and the better trade deficits and budget deficits.. and wow... the farmers are just doing amazing.. and no more wars in the mideast.
so much for free market. and trump continues to manipulate the stock market openly. the rights acts as if they worry about security but just try to opt out of any financial institution's ability to sell your personal info. nipe, you cant
This over national security worries when Tik Tok start in 2017, on Trumps watch, he did nothing. Tik Tok currently has 100 million U.S. users so Chun already has information on one third of American citizens and government officials. A little late to take action against them 3 years after the fact. Very poor leadership.
Come defend china and tik tok david9! true leader of chinese american
The U.S. need to decouple from China. China is a bully in Southeast Asia with its bogus 9 dash line, and they have been stealing our intellectual properties for a long time. We do not need to help them get richer. Nor do we need to help them spy on our people. You give a Chinese an inch, they will take a yard.
Unfortunately you don't realise China actually helped US get rich, but only the 1% in Wall Street. Maybe you should think about that more. And of course you don't need Chinese help spy on US citizens or German chancellor.
China spies on everyone, especialy the Chinese and ex-pats. Your point about China making the 1% rich is flawed and ignorant of history and facts. But then you're biased.
an old loser trick from Trump again 😄
how this will affect oracle shares? it will go up or down?
Doesnt matter. Orcl is at all time high. It will continue because it takes a major event, like earning, to turn a stock around.
Nice!
Google is ban in china because it does send users traffic to gov. Vpn is ban in china because the gov cant see ur internet communication/traffic.
Go watch YouTube of people there, lots using the apps openly.
0c
its true China blocks every other foreign website or app pretty much, often without giving any explanation. They are much more outrageous in that regard. Doesnt mean US should follow in their footsteps. These banned apps are made by private companies not the Chinese government
To quote Stevie Wonder, " You haven't done nothing." Ridiculous campaigning to impress his base!
It just makes "national security" looking like joke in the world …… "Executive orders" is tool for Trump personal revenge.
he is joke, so everything he did
Millennial doesn't care if it is banned or not. It is very easy to get around the ban by using a VPN.
shhhh, don't tell the Mango Messiah
The mango messiah doesn't understand technology, he thinks no app in the app store, then it is all good....the app is banned in India, yet millennial there continue to use it.
To the geniuses who think US administration does not know how the technology works, well, you're a simple tool and China's little vociferous child. Of course, they know. But that's not the strategy here, is it? This is messaging to get China to comply and reciprocate with foreign company trade conditions. This is what they do in China, its called partnership. This effort is to head off the idea of floating Tik Toc because they think listing a subsidiary in the US and making it fall under US Law is good enough. As China does! Trade is a two-way street. Even Europe is coming around, we do as you do. China is not a 3rd world developing nation anymore, even though it keeps claiming this when convenient. FAIR TRADE and comply with international trade laws, grow up and stop being a bully.
the lib salt levels are very high below
lol
in the communist era...this was called censorship and nationalization of the economy
yeah but somehow the Trump supporters will still blame this on Biden the socialist......just like they blame BLM supporters for being racists
versus spying on the population?
actually Trump will blame Obama.
TikTok app made only for low intelligence users
those tiktok low intelligence users were partly responsible for Trump campaign bragging about 1 million requests for the Tulsa rally and only 10k showed up........
Tiktok ping-pongHow did the China trade deal work out?LOL
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