Trump signs executive orders to ban TikTok and WeChat from the US

Executive orders has been signed to ban social media apps, TikTok and WeChat from operating in the US in 45 days.

President Donald Trump sign the orders on Thursday August 6, and the condition for their ban is if they are not sold by their Chinese-owned parent companies.

The executive orders, one for each app takes effect in 45 days.

In the executive order which declares TikTok a “national emergency”, Mr Trump claims the app “automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users,” such as location data and browsing and search histories, which “threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ 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.”

The order regarding TikTok prohibits after 45 days “any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd.,” the Chinese company that owns the social media platform.

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.

The order states “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 Kòngg? Y?uxiàn G?ngs?), Shenzhen, China, or any subsidiary of that entity, as identified by the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) under section 1(c) of this order.”