Chennai: The United States on Friday issued orders to ban popular Chinese social media apps TikTok and WeChat from Sunday to safeguard national security, saying they were prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity and security of the country. The move comes weeks after India banned them.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump said he is looking into American majorĀ Oracle’s reported bid for the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok and wants to ensure there is no compromise on national security before approving the deal.
In August, Trump signed an executive order to ban TikTok and WeChat by SeptemberĀ 15 unless the ownership of the two Chinese companies changed to American.
At the President’s direction, we have taken significant action to combat China’s malicious collection of American citizens’ personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of US laws and regulations, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said.