President Trump Signs Executive Order To Ban TikTok In 45 Days; China Issues Threat About Consequences

Aug 7, 2020

President Trump has no doubt dashed the dreams of millions of young people across the country who were hoping to utilize Chinese app TikTok to get their fifteen minutes of fame by signing an executive order that bans the app in 45 days.

Much of the reasoning behind this move has to do with the fact the Chinese government is collecting data from users of the app, which could prove to be a national security risk.

Here’s more on this from TheBlaze:

President Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act to ban the social media apps from China.

The Trump administration argues that a ban of the apps is necessary because of security concerns with TikTok, a short-form video app, as well as WeChat, a social media and mobile payment app.

The executive order says, “The spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People’s Republic of China (China) continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”

“TikTok automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users, including Internet and other network activity information such as location data and browsing and search histories,” the executive order states. “This data collection 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.

Here’s what the second executive order, which is to ban WeChat, says:

“Like TikTok, WeChat automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users. This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information,” the second executive order says. “In addition, the application 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.

“The United States must take aggressive action against the owner of WeChat to protect our national security.”

China’s foreign ministry is none too happy with the president’s move and naturally opposes the executive orders.

Wang Wenbin, ministry spokesmen, spoke to reporters during a press conference on Friday stating that Bejing will defend the rights and interests of Chinese businesses and went on to warn that the United States would have to face consequences for their actions.

“The U.S. is using national security as an excuse and using state power to oppress non-American businesses. That’s just a hegemonic practice. China is firmly opposed to that,” Wang stated.

Sorry if we don’t trust you, China, but after the coronavirus snafu and the failed attempts to cover up the truth about it — not to mention the spies that were trying to steal information concerning potential virus vaccines here in the U.S. — it seems like a good idea to limit your access to our information as much as possible.

It’ll be interesting to see what the potential economic consequences are for all parties involved. Guess we’ll find out sooner rather than later.