The US President Donald Trump has issued two executive orders essentially banning the apps TikTok and WeChat in the US. When they take effect in 45 days, US businesses and citizens will be prohibited from interacting with ByteDance and Tencent, the respective. parent companies of the two apps. Trump said the apps pose a threat to national security, foreign policy and the economy in the US.
TikTok and WeChat were accused of capturing "vast swaths of information" from users, including internet and other network activity information such as location data and browsing and search histories. According to Trump, this personal information on Americans could go back to the Chinese Communist Party, potentially allowing China to track the locations of government employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.
WeChat was also accused of tracking Chinese nationals in the US on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, while TikTok allegedly censors content that the Chinese Communist Party deems politically sensitive, such as content concerning protests in Hong Kong and China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. The app may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party, such as conspiracy theories about the origins of the coronavirus, the White House said.
Senate bans government use
Trump further pointed to action already taken by the US armed forces and the Indian government to ban use of the apps. Separately, the US Senate unanimously passed a bill banning TikTik on government employee devices. The Departments of Homeland Security and Defence and the Transportation Security Administration had already issued similar orders.
TikTok 'shocked'
TikTik said in a statement that it was "shocked" by the order, "which was issued without any due process". The company said it had been trying to engage with the US government for nearly a year to address its concerns. "What we encountered instead was that the Administration paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses," the company said.
TikTik has previously denied collecting any unauthorised data from users and said it stores all US customer data within the country, at servers in Virginia. No personal data is sent back to China. The company has been working on regionalising its operations, setting up new data centres and a new global headquarters, in order to combat concerns it is too close to China. Most recently it announced a major data centre in Ireland for its users in the EU, where its privacy practices are also under scrutiny.
TikTok noted that there was no evidence provided of wrong-doing by the company, with the executive order relying on unnamed "reports" with no citations and fears that the app "may be" used for misinformation campaigns. The collection of data "is industry standard for thousands of mobile apps around the world", the company noted, adding that "TikTok has never shared user data with the Chinese government, nor censored content at its request". Its moderation guidelines and algorithm source code are available in its online Transparency Center, "which is a level of accountability no peer company has committed to," it noted.
In the US, TikTok may find a solution in a proposed deal with Microsoft. The US company is looking at acquiring TikTok's operations in certain countries and has set a deadline of mid-September to reach a deal.
TikTok also addressed a message to its over 100 million users in the US, saying it prioritizes "your safety, security, and the trust of our community – always". It called on users and partners to exercise their right to express their opinions to elected representatives, including the White House.
