BAN ON THE USE OF TikTok AND WeChat to move forward IN THE U.S AS TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump with the use of his emergency economic powers signed an executive order that will see to the ban of TikTok and WeChat in the U.S.

This would automatically result in the ban of transactions between Tencent which owns WeChat and Bytedance which happens to be the parent company of the popular short video sharing app, TikTok.

This ban taking effect in 45 days, was stated to be as a result of security issues. Though the extent of the ban has not been clearly stated, it was revealed in the executive order that when the 45 days period elapses, the Secretary of Commerce shall identify the transactions that will be affected by the prohibition.

The order which was given on Thursday alleged that TikTok automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users which includes location data, browsing, and search histories. This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to American’s personal and proprietary information – potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.

As claimed by TikTok, which was being clear that the information it collects is similar to those collected by other American companies like Google and Facebook.

President Trump stated in the executive order that the United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect their national security.

TikTok has made constant efforts in denying the claims made against them, admitting that the data from users in the United State are stored in Virginia, with a backup in Singapore. Officials at TikTok revealed that the company has never given any data to the Chinese authorities, this supporting what was implied by TikTok that the information was not subjected to Chinese law.

But some experts have brought it to notice that existing legislation in China could force local Chinese companies like ByteDance to turn in data to Beijing.

With a lot of companies already in the race to acquire TikTok, Microsoft has also confirmed that it is in talks with ByteDance to acquire TikTok’s services in America, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. But some officials say that more countries may be included in its operations.

This would be a major shift for Microsoft which has always based its business operation on the sale of software and cloud computing services. It would as well be a great addition as they already own the networking site LinkedIn and Skype which is for messaging.

As it concerns WeChat, it will also see a ban on its transactions with its company Tencent. As the order states that “any transaction that is related to WeChat by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with Tencent Holdings Ltd. (a.k.a. Téngxùn Kònggǔ Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī), Shenzhen, China, or any subsidiary of that entity, as identified by the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) under section 1(c) of this order."

Mike Pompeo who is the Secretary of State made it known that the administration of President Trump wants to ensure that untrusted Chinese apps like WeChat and TikTok are removed from the United States app stores. As those apps which have their parent company in China, pose significant threats to personal data of the citizens of America.

TikTok is an app that a lot of youths have grown to love, as it is being used by millions of American’s for entertainment, self-expression, and connection. This order would put a lot of pressure on ByteDance to consider selling TikTok to Microsoft or other U.S companies that are in talks with them.

According to analysts from the Eurasia Group, they stated that “The US actions against TikTok and WeChat could be a turning point in Beijing’s calculus around how to respond to the US policy actions that have now either impacted or threatened to impact all of China’s national tech champions”.

With all of these happening recently, TikTok has made accusations against Facebook for introducing a feature that seems very much like what they offer and is only trying to take advantage of the move made against them by the current administration.