Trump signs executive order to ban U.S. “transactions” with TikTok and WeChat
US President Donald Trump has signed a pair of executive orders that ban any US transactions with the Chinese companies that own TikTok and WeChat, citing national security risks. The executive orders come just weeks after the Indian government issued a ban on over 100 Chinese apps due to similar reasons. According to a recent report from The Associated Press, the executive orders will take effect in 45 days, and they call on the Commerce Secretary to define the banned dealings in that time.
Once the ban goes into effect, it will bar “any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd” and Tencent Holdings Ltd. For the unaware, ByteDance Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd are the parent companies of TikTok and WeChat, respectively. While the executive orders aren’t clear about the extent of the ban, experts suggest that they intend to bar the Google Play Store and Apple App Store from hosting these apps and thereby remove the apps from distribution in the US.
The executive orders allege that these apps pose a threat to the data of American users and could give “the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the location of federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of persona information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”
It’s worth noting that WeChat’s parent company, Tencent Holdings Ltd, also owns or has a stake in several major American video game companies, like Riot Games, the studio behind League of Legends, Clash of Clans publisher Supercell, Epic Games, and more. The company also develops and distributed popular mobile games like PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile. Because the executive order calls for a ban on any US transactions with Tencent Holdings Ltd, it was previously speculated that the ban could have a significant impact on all of Tencent’s properties. However, a White House official has since clarified that the executive order concerning WeChat only bans transactions related to the messenger and doesn’t involve other Tencent holdings.
Via: APNews
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