TikTok clock running out
US to ban WeChat, TikTok downloads beginning Sunday
The U.S. Commerce Department on Friday took harsh action against two popular apps owned by Chinabased companies, announcing an imminent ban on the messaging service WeChat and limiting updates to the video app TikTok in the U.S. in advance of a ban or change of ownership.
“Today’s actions prove once again that President Trump will do everything in his power to guarantee our national security and protect Americans from the threats of the Chinese Communist Party,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement.
The ban on WeChat is set to take effect Sunday. Under the Commerce Department’s guidance, American companies including Apple and Google, are being instructed to remove WeChat from their mobile app stores. The department also said WeChat’s ability to transfer funds in the U.S. would be curtailed.
Starting on Sunday night, TikTok users in the U.S. will not be able to access updates to the TikTok app, which could cause a gradual degradation of the app’s services, Ross said in an interview with Fox Business. TikTok also said the order would block new app downloads on Sunday.
The Trump administration is targeting popular apps like WeChat and TikTok owned by China-based tech companies, raising national security concerns about whether these apps could pass on information about U.S. users to the Chinese government. The administration has given parent company ByteDance a deadline of Nov. 12 to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations or face a full ban in the U.S.
In a briefing call Friday, senior Commerce Department officials, speaking on background, declined to say how the new restrictions would be enforced, and they acknowledged
the practical limitations of a ban and the potential backlash the administration could face in targeting an app that many Chinese Americans use to communicate with friends and relatives.
“We expect that individual users will probably find ways to use these applications. Stopping every person from using these, WeChat or TikTok in the United States, is not our intent,” a senior official said, noting that the aim of the prohibitions would be to reduce the use of these social media in the United States over time and thus the availability of data from Americans and threat to national security.
ByteDance is working on gaining approval from the U.S. and Chinese governments of a deal whereby Oracle would be named its trusted technology partner, maintaining and operating TikTok in the U.S. TikTok said in a statement that its proposal would also include “third-party audits, verification of code security and U.S. government oversight of U.S. data security.”
Commerce Department officials on the briefing call declined to comment on the state of those talks. The Commerce and Treasury departments are working together to review the process.