US President Donald Trump has ordered an undefined ban on “transactions” with the Chinese owners of TikTok and weChat.
Trump vs. TikTok
Actually, despite the vagueness of the wording order, it leaves open the possibility that hosting the apps in the Apple and Google app stores could be covered by the ban. Mr. Trump, who often has troubles with socials, had threatened a deadline of September 15 to close down the app unless Microsoft or somebody else bought it. TikTok insists it does not store US user information in China and would not share it with the Chinese government.
US President Donald Trump signs an executive order to address the ‘threat’ of TikTok https://t.co/YzESEOkJce
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) August 7, 2020
TikTok and WeChat
TikTok is a video-sharing app that is broadly popular among young (but also old) people in the US and elsewhere around the world. The company, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, operates a separate version for the Chinese market.
WeChat and its sister app, Weixin in China, are highly popular messaging apps. Many Chinese expatriates use WeChat to stay in touch with friends and family back home. As TikTok, WeChat also affirms that it does not share data with the Chinese government, and never has, and does not store international user data in China.