President Trump signed executive orders to ban TikTok and WeChat

Aug 7, 2020
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By Rashi Jain-

President Donald J. Trump on Thursday signed executive orders banning any U.S. transaction with TikTok parent company ‘ByteDance Ltd.’ and WeChat’s parent company ‘Tencent Holdings Ltd.’ beginning 45 days after the date of the order. President trump mentioned in the order that he took this step to stop the spread in the United States of applications owned and developed by China, which continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the U.S.

Section 1(a) of the order banning TikTok – “The following actions shall be prohibited beginning 45 days after the date of this order, to the extent permitted under applicable law: any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd. (a.k.a. Zìjié Tiàodòng), Beijing, China, or its subsidiaries, in which any such company has any interest, as identified by the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) under section 1(c) of this order.”    

President declared that the threat from the Chinese apps as a national emergency and additional steps must be taken to deal with the national emergency concerning the Executive Order 13873 of May 15, 2019

President Trump also mentioned that Chinese apps like Tiktok and WeChat automatically capture vast swaths of information from its users and this data collection threatens to allow Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information. Besides it also allows the Chinese Communist party to keep tabs on Chinese citizens visiting the U.S.  who have the right to enjoy free society in the boundaries of America.

President also raised the issue that these apps also reportedly censors content that the Chinese Communist Party deems politically sensitive and these apps may also be used for disinformation campaigns with directly or indirectly benefits the Chinese Communist Party.

With response to this action, China said that the executive order banning Tiktok and WeChat goes against marketing principles and urges Washington to correct its mistake. The executive order by President Trump grants the window of 45 days, which can be used by Microsoft for closing the deal with ByteDance Ltd. regarding its potential TikTok acquisition.

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