WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration will ban WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok from U.S. app stores starting Sunday night, a move that will block Americans from downloading the Chinese-owned platforms over concerns they pose a national security threat.
The bans, announced on Friday, affect only new downloads and updates and are less sweeping than expected, particularly for TikTok, giving its parent group ByteDance some breathing space to clinch an agreement over the fate of its U.S. operations.
WeChat, an all-in-one messaging, social media and electronic payment app, faces more severe restrictions from Sunday. Existing TikTok users, on the other hand, will see little change until Nov. 12 when a ban on some technical transactions will kick in, which TikTok said would amount to an effective ban.
“We disagree with the decision from the Commerce Department, and are disappointed that it stands to block new app downloads from Sunday and ban use of the TikTok app in the U.S. from Nov. 12,” the company said in a statement. “We will continue to challenge the unjust executive order, which was enacted without due process and threatens to deprive the American people and small businesses across the U.S. of a significant platform for both a voice and livelihoods.”
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Fox Business Network that “the basic TikTok will stay intact until Nov. 12.”
The ban on new U.S. downloads of the widely popular app could still be rescinded by President Donald Trump before it takes effect if ByteDance seals a deal with Oracle that addresses concerns about the security of its users’ data.
“This is the right move - ratchet up the pressure on Beijing, protect Americans,” said Republican Senator Josh Hawley on Twitter.
The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to purge “untrusted” Chinese apps from U.S. digital networks amid escalating tensions with Beijing on a range of issues from trade and human rights to the battle for tech supremacy.
The ban on WeChat, used by over 1 billion people worldwide, bars the transfer of funds or processing of payments to or from people in the United States through it. Users could also start to experience slower service from Sunday night.
The Commerce Department order bars Apple Inc’s app store, Alphabet Inc’s Google Play and others from offering the apps on any platform “that can be reached from within the United States,” a senior Commerce official told Reuters.
While the bans are less dramatic than some had originally feared, Commerce officials said additional transactions could be added at a later date.
Oracle shares were down 0.3% after initially dropping 1.6% in pre-market trading.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the Commerce order “violates the First Amendment rights of people in the United States by restricting their ability to communicate and conduct important transactions on the two social media platforms.”
It added it also “harms the privacy and security of millions of existing TikTok and WeChat users in the United States by blocking software updates, which can fix vulnerabilities and make the apps more secure.”
The order does not ban U.S. companies from doing businesses on WeChat outside the United States, which will be welcome news to U.S. firms like Walmart and Starbucks that use WeChat’s embedded ‘mini-app’ programs to facilitate transactions and engage consumers in China, officials said.
The order will not bar transactions with WeChat-owner Tencent Holdings’ other businesses, including its online gaming operations, and will not prohibit Apple, Google or others from offering TikTok or WeChat apps anywhere outside the United States.
The bans are in response to a pair of executive orders issued by Trump on Aug. 6 that gave the Commerce Department 45 days to determine what transactions to block from the apps he deemed pose a national security threat. That deadline expires on Sunday.
Commerce Department officials said they were taking the extraordinary step because of the risks the apps’ data collection poses. China and the companies have denied U.S. user data is collected for spying.
Ross said in a written statement “we have taken significant action to combat China’s malicious collection of American citizens’ personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of U.S. laws and regulations.”
Apple and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump to block U.S. downloads of TikTok, WeChat on Sunday - Zoomers eternally mad
- Thread starter Plunkie
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2019
Maybe they should stay in china if communicating with their ccp family is so important?
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2020
The Russians had the common sense (or lack of state strength?) not to pull this shit. I use a bunch of Yandex tools at my job. You'd think 5000 year culture, or hell, studying what Russia did during the Cold War, would have made the Chinese act a little more subtly in their quest for Chinar Dream. But everything I've seen so far indicates they have the nuance and diplomatic prowess of Wilhelm II's ghost with laduzi.
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2019
Yeah, well, I guess that cat's out of the bag. Wasn't aware the president could just interfere with commerce like that, I hope that doesn't extend to domestic affairs.
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2017
The “WeChat is used to chat with family members” excuse is a tired and uneducated one. WhatsApp is supported and widely used across the world (its a Facebook property that’s viewed as less egregious - for now). Further, WeChat is a barely functioning application in parts of the globe. In Asian countries, it’s used as a payment processor/merchant, but in the States and Europe, it’s yet another subpar chatting application with the added benefit of transmitting your data to unknown entities.
Tell your mom you love her by educating her to get off of platforms that are designed to exfiltrate data.
Tell your mom you love her by educating her to get off of platforms that are designed to exfiltrate data.
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2013
The president always has had sole, and very broad power over national security issues. It's never been an issue to be "let out of the bag", it's in the Constitution. The president can cut off entire countries pretty much at a whim - for example, JFK's embargo of Cuba.
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2019
Zoomers and middle aged women are about to discover the joys of downloading apks.
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2019
You gotta be a red blooded American if you want to steal my data you fucking commies
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2015
Bad idea. I strongly disagree with any form of government censorship. I would disagree if Obama did, if Reagan did it, if Biden did it or George Washington did it.
As far as I can see TikTok has offered full transparency and a third party to audit them. If there’s any worry about collecting user data, which is the money maker for any social media platform, they should direct it to not be installed on any government issued phone.
Banning it from the marketplace is a blow to free speech, the marketplace of ideas and is not based on any criminal or illegal activities.
As far as I can see TikTok has offered full transparency and a third party to audit them. If there’s any worry about collecting user data, which is the money maker for any social media platform, they should direct it to not be installed on any government issued phone.
Banning it from the marketplace is a blow to free speech, the marketplace of ideas and is not based on any criminal or illegal activities.
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2013
Haha these middle aged women are the same people who couldn't hook up a DVD player when it was just three colored cables that plugged into matching sockets on the back of the TV.
They'll be calling their kids to have them do it. Convenient, since they all moved back in because millennials.
- Joined
- May 25, 2020
I don't like getting rid of WeChat, mostly because it was able to get past the firewall. If some other platform emerges that gets past the firewall, though, who really cares?
How is this going to interact with VPNs, anyways? Do I just have to pretend to be from Luxembourg and the play store will let me get it? Lol what a limpdicked effort if so
How is this going to interact with VPNs, anyways? Do I just have to pretend to be from Luxembourg and the play store will let me get it? Lol what a limpdicked effort if so
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2018
wHAt aRE YOu TAlkIng ABOuT; ameRICan CORpORaTiOns aRE oUr grEaTESt ALliEs
t.A&H
*conservatives procede to get backstabed by their own "American" corporations for the 2874th time*
...Not that I really care that a Chinese company is getting owned; I am just making fun of the people on the thread who think American corporations are their allies and not selling out to China as we speak.
Hux
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- May 10, 2018
Well the Zoomers better get used to it, disappointment is going to be a massive part of their lives
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2013
Has anyone been doing that in this thread, or are you just setting up strawmen? I mean, it looks like the latter, but who knows.
Observotron
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2019
American Companies are held to the standards of US Law (on paper at least). Not to mention they're not a foreign entity. It's one of those things where you're fucked either way - one side just uses a little bit of lube.
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- Joined
- Nov 3, 2018
Frankly, they're not, or at least US Law is way
too weak on them if they are; And they should been treated like foreign entities at least a decade ago when it became obvious compaines like Google were collaborating with China.
Observotron
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2019
I agree ( I actually just edited the comment to reflect that), but there's at least a chance for some costumer protection with domestic entities.
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2013
And Trump doesn't just ban TikTok in full why? Is he just waiting for November 12th like the rest of us to strike? Or are his hands tied?
Because I think the internet would be better off if TikTok got the WeChat treatment as well.
Because I think the internet would be better off if TikTok got the WeChat treatment as well.
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2018
Mate, no one is defending US Corporations except for the Boomers and Ancaps
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2019
Escalation happening boys 
Tencent monopoly on death watch before or after election.
Tencent monopoly on death watch before or after election.
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2017
Nah, it's wrong then too. But at least the Chinese companies can actually be shut down while the American corporations run the goddamn country and are untouchable.
I think TikTok will be fully banned after the election if Trump can win. The only reason he's not gone all the way is because he doesn't want to alienate a bunch of Core Zoomers who can vote in their first presidential election and are pissed off at the Democrats and the Woke Left for more or less taking away the enjoyment from the last years of their youth via lockdowns and cancel culture.
"No Fun Allowed" is the kind of thing that leads to a generational backlash down the line most of time. The Religious Right learned that one the hard way, which is how the Woke Left came to be a thing. Even the Puritans were supplanted by the libertines of the Restoration and Georgian eras once Cromwell was out of the picture.
The only time a mass paradigm shift to austere morality was ever truly successful in the long run was when Christianity supplanted paganism and a lot of that had to do with a perfect storm of external factors that led to the collapse of the Roman Empire and the aftermath of said collapse.