US President Donald Trump has signed executive orders banning social media apps TikTok and WeChat from operating in the US in 45 days if they are not sold by their Chinese-owned parent companies.
The orders did not state that a certain amount of money from the sale needs to be sent to the US Treasury Department, which the President has been insisting on for several days.
Read Also: Trump Gives TikTok 6 Weeks To Sell US Operations To American Company
In the executive order, which declares TikTok a “national emergency”, 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.
Shortly after issuing the order regarding TikTok, Trump issued a similar order for WeChat, an group chat app owned by Tencent, a Chinese based company.
For WeChat, which allows its users to transfer funds to each other, the order states it will ban financial transactions with Tencent.
According to the order;
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.
Trump issued the orders under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law that grants the administration sweeping power to bar US firms or citizens from trading or conducting financial transactions with sanctioned parties.
On Monday August 3, Trump said he would support the sale of TikTok‘s US operations to Microsoft and set September 15 as the deadline for TikTok to find a US buyer.
He also said the deal would have to include a “substantial amount of money” coming to the US Treasury.
In a statement, Microsoft said its CEO, Satya Nadella, spoke to Trump and “is prepared to continue discussions to explore a purchase of TikTok in the United States”.
It added;
Microsoft is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury.
It is speculated that US President’s anger towards the Chinese companies stemmed from a stunt organized mainly through TikTok which led to a sparsely-attended Trump campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma over a month ago.
In the days leading up to the June 20 rally, a coordinated effort was underway on TikTok encouraging people to register online for the free event and not show up.
The Trump campaign boasted to have received 1 million ticket requests to the event in Tulsa, but only 6,200 people showed up.
