Joe Biden revokes Trump bid to ban TikTok, WeChat & other China apps in US; prefers probe

In a breaking development, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order (EO) on Wednesday, revoking the Trump-era attempts to impose bans on Tiktok, WeChat and other China-made apps. In place of Donald Trump's order, Joe Biden will now direct the commerce secretary to investigate apps with ties to foreign adversaries that may pose a risk to American data privacy or national security. 

The new EO, which Joe Biden signed on Wednesday, will enable the United States of America to take strong steps to protect its citizens' sensitive data. The order will also provide criteria for identifying software applications that may pose an unacceptable risk. It will also help develop further options to protect sensitive personal data and address the potential threat from certain connected software applications. 

US President Joe Biden signs new Executive Order

The new order takes the place of a series of executive orders instituted by President Trump last year, which made to block apps like TikTok, WeChat, and Alipay from US app stores and took further measures to prevent them from operating in the US. The most extreme effects of those orders were forestalled by ongoing court challenges, however, the EO will revoke the orders outright. Instead, Biden’s order will institute a new framework for determining the national security risks of transactions that involve apps that are connected to the governments or militaries of foreign adversaries, like China, or collect sensitive data from US consumers.

The announcement comes as Biden on Wednesday morning left Washington for a week-long trip to Europe where China is expected to be a major focus of discussion among the Group of Seven nations.

Earlier in September 2021 former US President Donald Trump had announced prohibitions on transactions relating to Chinese apps including WeChat and Tiktok in a bid to safeguard national security.  As per the then-Executive Order, the US had barred Americans from downloading both the mobile applications from either Apple or Google’s app storefronts starting on September 20, 2020. India had also banned Chinese apps following the Galwan clash.

(Image: Instagram-Joe Biden, Unsplash)