Trump cites India’s action as to order ban dealings with owners of Chinese apps

President Donald Trump has ordered a ban on dealings with the Chinese owners of popular social media apps TikTok and WeChat,  citing India’s decision to ban the two applications.

The ban takes effect in 45 days, Trump said in two separate executive orders signed on Thursday.

“The Government of India recently banned the use of TikTok and other Chinese mobile applications throughout the country; in a statement, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asserted that they were stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India,” President Trump said, according to a report in the Hindustan Times.

“The United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security,” Trump said in his executive order. In his next executive order he said the country must take “aggressive action” against WeChat to protect America”s national security.

TikTok also reportedly 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. TikTok may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party, the president alleged.

“To deal with this threat, the order prohibits, beginning 45 days after the date of this order, to the extent permitted under applicable law, any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd., Beijing, China, or its subsidiaries, in which any such company has any interest, as identified by the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary),” Trump said.

He assigned the commerce secretary to take such actions, including applying appropriate rules and regulations, and to utilize all powers awarded to the President by International Emergency Economic Powers Act as may be necessary to implement the order.

The order also urges all department and agencies to take all appropriate actions within their authority to implement the order, Trump said.

In separate executive order, Trump said WeChat, a messaging, social media, and electronic payment application owned by the Chinese company Tencent Holdings Ltd., reportedly has over one billion users worldwide, including users in the United States.

“Like TikTok, WeChat automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users – threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans” personal and proprietary information,” he said.

WeChat also captures the personal and proprietary information of Chinese nationals visiting the United States, thereby allowing the Chinese Communist Party a mechanism for keeping tabs on Chinese citizens who may be enjoying the benefits of a free society for the first time in their lives, he alleged.

“WeChat, like TikTok, also reportedly censors content that the Chinese Communist Party deems politically sensitive and may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party,” Trump said.

At the same time, TikTok has reiterated that its US user data is already stored on US-based servers and backed up in Singapore, and is therefore not exposed to China as some US officials have alleged.
Earlier,US tech giant Microsoft has infored that it was in talks to acquire the Chinese app’s US opeations. Later, Microsoft co-founder Bill gates said Microsoft won’t do things that are hostile and is careful about data.

Trump said this week he would support the sale to Microsoft as long as the US government received a substantial cut of the sales price.

But he warned he would ban TikTok in the United States from September 15.

The US government took action last year against two Chinese communications giants, Huawei and ZTE, including locking them out of government contracts.