Trump Issues Order Banning TikTok, WeChat In U.S.: Reports

WASHINGTON, DC — In an unprecedented move, President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order banning all U.S. transactions with Bytedance, the China-based parent company of the popular video sharing app, TikTok.

According to the Associated Press, Trump also ordered an unspecified ban on WeChat, a social messaging app also owned by a China-based Tencent.

According to multiple reports citing correspondence from White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, the ban goes into effect in 45 days if TikTok is not sold to a U.S. based company.

The order prohibits “any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd."

The order came as the U.S. Senate voted unanimously on Thursday to approve a bill banning federal employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices.

According to the order, TikTok's "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."

Last week, Trump announced his intention to ban TikTok, an app that has been a source of national security and censorship concerns for his administration.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday said he would expand the U.S. crackdown on Chinese technology to personal apps, calling out TikTok and WeChat by name.

WeChat and its sister app Weixin in China are hugely popular messaging apps.

The legal basis of Trump's order remains uncertain.

“It’s a PR stunt. No specifics. It’s an objective,” George Washington University professor Susan Ariel Aaronson told the Associated Press.

Banning TikTok and WeChat is the latest move in a long line of U.S. crackdowns on Chinese technology companies, according to AP.

The U.S. has long singled out telecom equipment provider Huawei, encouraging allies not to use its equipment in their high-speed 5G wireless networks and banning U.S. telecom companies from using government funds for equipment and services from Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese telecom equipment provider.

Citing national security concerns, it also barred Google from providing its Android apps such as Google Maps for Huawei phones. The Federal Communications Commission is considering barring operations of Chinese telecom companies China Telecom and China Unicom, which provide services in the U.S., due to national-security concerns.

Over the weekend, it was was confirmed that Microsoft — known primarily for work software like Windows and Office — is in talks to buy TikTok's U.S. operations, a move that would salvage the app in the U.S.

Trump reportedly agreed to let Microsoft purchase TikTok, giving the company 45 days to make the deal happen with ByteDance. The Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States gave the deadline.