Trump to block U.S. downloads of TikTok, WeChat on Sunday

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Steve Kovach - CNBC




The Commerce Department announced Friday morning that it would ban U.S. business transactions with Chinese-owned social apps WeChat and TikTok on Sunday.

The announcement comes ahead of an expected statement Friday by President Donald Trump on whether or not the government will approve a deal for Oracle to take a minority stake in TikTok and become a "trusted technology partner" for the company in the U.S.

It's unclear if the Commerce Department's announcement means there's no possibility of a deal going through before the Sunday deadline, and it could be an aggressive move from the Trump Administration to push for its original intention for TikTok to be fully owned by a U.S. company.

"At the President's direction, 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." Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement Friday.

Friday's announcement from the Commerce Department appears to be enforcing Trump's original executive order from August 6 that gave TikTok 45 days to sell its U.S. business to a U.S. company or face a ban in the U.S. WeChat, which is one of the most popular social messaging apps in the world, is owned by the Chinese company Tencent. TikTok's parent company is the Chinese company ByteDance.

The Commerce Department's statement on Friday said that starting Sept. 20, U.S. companies would be banned from distributing WeChat and TikTok, meaning the two major mobile app stores run by Apple and Google would have to remove the apps from their libraries. The statement also blocks U.S. companies from providing services through WeChat "for the purpose of transferring funds or processing payments within the U.S."

WeChat is a popular marketing and sales tool for U.S. companies primarily in China, but around the world as well. With U.S. social apps like Facebook and Instagram banned in China, WeChat is the primary app people use for social networking and e-commerce. It's also a popular app used by people in the U.S. to communicate with people in China, since U.S. apps are banned in China.

The Commerce Department's announcement also lays out a separate time frame specific to TikTok, which take affect on Nov. 12. The rules that start Nov. 12 include provisions that block U.S. companies from providing internet hosting and services for TikTok. This could be directed at the deal being negotiated between TikTok and Oracle, which would provide cloud services for TikTok if Trump approves, and could give TikTok and Oracle more time to hammer out a deal that Trump will approve.

Representatives for Tencent, TikTok, WeChat, Apple and Google were not immediately available to comment.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

[FBD]

good, the chinese dont need to participate in the election

[DemonGeminiX]

On the one hand, I'm all for hurting China. On the other, the Libertarian in me is screaming foul.

[FBD]

On the one hand, I'm all for hurting China. On the other, the Libertarian in me is screaming foul.

The libertarian in you thinks that China should be able to just have its way with the data & videos made by US citizens with their apps? The libertarian in me would have an issue were this an american company, but where this is spywar against globalists...

[DemonGeminiX]

The libertarian in you thinks that China should be able to just have its way with the data & videos made by US citizens with their apps? The libertarian in me would have an issue were this an american company, but where this is spywar against globalists...

The Libertarian in me has a problem with the government telling me what I can and can't install on my smartphone. I understand what China does and the danger it poses to the US, but I also understand that when you allow government to do something that they've never done before, it creates a precedent, and future administrations can use that precedent to go further with the action in a manner that goes farther beyond its original intent, which in this case, is to protect our national security and people's personal details from a Communist nation. Future intents may be more sinister.

[Pony]

The libertarian in you thinks that China should be able to just have its way with the data & videos made by US citizens with their apps? The libertarian in me would have an issue were this an american company, but where this is spywar against globalists...

Only American companies and Government are allowed to spy on US citizens.

[FBD]

Only American companies and Government are allowed to spy on US citizens.

We can do something against an american company that abuses their ToS, for one of the PRC's cia-go-corporate modeled "corporations"....we have no such recourse...

"Me Chinese, me play joke..."

[DemonGeminiX]

Looks like Trump approved a deal so that Oracle and Walmart can buy into Tiktok.

[Hikari Kisugi]

good, the chinese dont need to participate in the election

Just the Russians

[FBD]

Looks like Trump approved a deal so that Oracle and Walmart can buy into Tiktok.

what I want to know, is this going to change the structure of the app, i.e. copies of everything

Just the Russians

that damned thousand bucks in facebooks ads