Trump administration to ban TikTok and WeChat
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Friday it would bar Chineseowned mobile apps WeChat and TikTok from U.S. app stores as of midnight Sunday, a significant escalation in America’s tech fight with China that takes aim at two popular services used by more than 100 million people in the United States.
In a series of moves designed to render WeChat essentially useless within the United States, the government will also ban American companies from processing transactions for WeChat or hosting its internet traffic as of midnight Sunday.
Similar restrictions will go into effect for TikTok on Nov. 12 unless the company can assuage the administration’s concerns that the popular social media app poses a threat to U.S. national security. TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, is currently in talks to do a deal with Redwood City softwaremaker Oracle. The Commerce Department said the prohibitions could be lifted if TikTok resolves the administration’s national security concerns.
“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 actions follow an
Aug. 6 executive order by Trump, in which he argued that TikTok and WeChat collect data from American users that could be accessed by the Chinese government. The administration has threatened fines of up to $1 million and up to 20 years in prison for violations of the order.
TikTok spokesperson Josh Gartner said in a statement that the company was disappointed in the Commerce Department’s decision, which he called “unjust.”
Tencent Holdings, which owns WeChat, said it was reviewing the new rules and had submitted a proposal to address the government’s national security concerns about the app. It said it would “continue to discuss with the government and other stakeholders in the U.S. ways to achieve a longterm solution.”
Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ross, in an interview on Fox Business Network on Friday morning, said that the ban would initially have a much greater impact on WeChat.
“For all practical purposes it will be shut down in the U.S., but only in the U.S., as of midnight Monday,” Ross said.
TikTok would also face some changes but would still be allowed to function until Nov. 12, Ross said, at which point it would face the same ban as WeChat if there was no deal that satisfied the administration’s concerns.
“As to TikTok, the only real change as of Sunday night will be users won’t have access to improved updated apps, upgraded apps or maintenance,” he said.
That delay will allow users of the popular social media app — who are primarily young — to continue using the service before the Nov. 3 election.
The U.S. government will ban American companies from transferring funds or processing payments through WeChat. It will also prohibit companies from offering internet hosting, content delivery networks, internet transit or peering services to WeChat, or using the app’s code in other software or services in the United States.
Many of the internet services targeted by the government’s order “are like the FedEx for the data business,” said Charlie Chai, an analyst for 86Research, a research firm focused on Chinese companies. “If no FedEx is willing to carry the data package for WeChat, then WeChat is dead” in the United States.
The actions take aim at two of China’s most popular and successful tech exports, which knit together nearly 2 billion people worldwide.
TikTok, which does not directly operate in China, has become a wildly popular means of sharing viral videos in the United States. WeChat is at the center of digital life in China, functioning as a chat app, a payment service and a news source for people in China and the Chinese diaspora around the world. It is also a conduit for Chinese propaganda and surveillance.
As of Friday morning, the Chinese government had not issued any statements. China has long blocked access to such American social media as Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp that it cannot readily monitor or censor.
Apple and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Both have said in the past that they comply with the local laws in each country they serve.