An executive order banning social media apps TikTok and WeChat from operating in the United States in 45 days has been signed by President Donald Trump.
The U.S. leader signed the order on Thursday, August 6, 2020, and the ban takes effect if at the end of 45 days the social media apps are not sold by their Chinese-owned parent companies.
In the executive order which declares TikTok a “national emergency”, President Trump says the app “automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users” such as location data and browsing search histories which threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and propriety information and this potentially allows China to track the locations of federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.
For WeChat (which allows its users to transfer funds to each other), the order states it will ban financial transactions with Tencent, a Chinese-based company.
Trump gave the orders under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law that grants the administration sweeping power to bar US firms or citizens from trading or conducting financial transactions with sanctioned parties.
The U.S. President had stated on Monday that he would support the sale of TikTok US operations to Microsoft and set September 15, 2020, as the deadline for the acquisition.
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