Published 11:15 IST, August 7th 2020
Trump signs executive order banning transaction with TikTok, WeChat in 45 days
Trump signed an executive order banning American citizens and businesses from doing any transaction with Chinese-owned application TikTok, ByteDance, WeChat.
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US President Donald Trump on August 6 signed an executive order banning American citizens and businesses from doing any transaction with Chinese-owned application TikTok, its parent company ByteDance Ltd. and messaging app WeChat after 45 days. Trump in his executive order stated that se steps have been taken because applications mentioned above threaten national security, foreign policy, and ecomy of United States. Trump has accused Chinese-owned apps of storing personal data of American citizens and possibly sharing it with Beijing.
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"TikTok automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users, including Internet and or network activity information such as location data and browsing and search histories. This data collection threatens to allow Chinese Communist Party (CPC) access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espion," Trump said in his order.
Trump in his order furr accused TikTok of censoring content, especially those that CPC deems politically sensitive, content related to Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, China's treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xijiang province, etc. Trump also accused WeChat of similar charges, including data collection, espion, etc. In addition, Trump added that "WeChat captures personal and proprietary information of Chinese nationals visiting US, reby allowing CPC a mechanism for keeping tabs on Chinese citizens who may be enjoying benefits of a free society for first time in ir lives".
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Growing scrutiny
order came when US tech giant Microsoft is already in talks with ByteDance to reach an agreement regarding sales of TikTok's US operations. US Senate on August 6 unanimously passed a bill banning use of Chinese-owned video application TikTok by federal employees on government devices. Meanwhile, TikTok has invested a huge amount in Ireland to open a new European data collection centre amid growing scrutiny over its practices across world. In June, Indian government banned Chinese-owned video-sharing app citing national security and privacy as reasons following a violent military clash at Himalayan border with People's Liberation Army (PLA). India was reportedly TikTok's largest market.
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11:15 IST, August 7th 2020