President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday banning transactions with ByteDance, the parent company of popular app TikTok . The White House also announced that he signed a similar order banning transactions with WeChat, the messaging app owned by Tencent that is ubiquitous in China, but has a much smaller presence than TikTok in the United States, where it is used mainly by members of the Chinese diaspora.
Both orders will take effect in 45 days, but (and this is a key point) the executive orders are vague and confusing because they say Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross will not identify what transactions are covered until then. It’s also still uncertain how the executive orders will affect the apps’ operations in the U.S. or Tencent’s other holdings.
Though the order was not phrased to ban the two apps directly, the government may have other means to restrict them. Just yesterday, the Trump administration announced its plans to purge “untrusted” Chinese tech services, which could reasonably include WeChat and TikTok, under the Clean Network program.
A Tencent spokesperson said the company is reviewing the executive order to get a full understanding.
TikTok hit back saying that the executive order was “issued without any due process” and would risk “undermining global businesses’ trust in the United States’ commitment to the rule of law.”
The orders cite the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act. It is important to note that naming the apps’ operations in the United States as a national emergency is a highly unprecedented act and the legality of the orders will likely be challenged. ByteDance is currently pushing back against the Indian government’s July decision to ban TikTok along with 59 other apps; like the U.S., India also cited national security concerns around user data collection.
Microsoft announced over the weekend that it is in negotiations to buy TikTok from ByteDance, naming September 15 as a deadline for negotiations. The order would take effect shortly after the deadline set by Microsoft for the deal. ByteDance reportedly agreed to give up its entire ownership in the app even though it had previously wanted to maintain a minority stake.
TechAnlyX 