Friday, September 18, 2020 8:47:18 AM
BUSINESS NEWS
SEPTEMBER 17, 2020 / 08:22 PM
Trump to block U.S. downloads of TikTok, WeChat on Sunday - officials
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department said it will issue an order Friday that will bar people in the United States from downloading Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok starting on September 20.
Commerce officials said the ban on new U.S. downloads of TikTok could be still rescinded by President Donald Trump before it takes effect late Sunday as TikTok owner ByteDance races to clinch an agreement over the fate of its U.S. operations.
ByteDance has been talks with Oracle Corp and others to create a new company, TikTok Global, that aims to address U.S. concerns about the security of its users’ data. ByteDance still needs Trump’s approval to stave off a U.S. ban.
Commerce officials said they will not bar additional technical transactions for TikTok until Nov. 12, which gives the company additional time to see if ByteDance can reach a deal for its U.S. operations. “The basic TikTok will stay intact until Nov. 12,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Fox Business Network.
The department said the actions will “protect users in the U.S. by eliminating access to these applications and significantly reducing their functionality.”
Oracle shares fell 1.6% after the news in pre-market trading
The Commerce Department order will “deplatform” the two apps in the United States and bar Apple Inc’s app store, Alphabet Inc’s Google Play and others from offering the apps on any platform “that can be reached from within the United States,” a senior Commerce official told Reuters.
The order will not ban U.S. companies from doing businesses on WeChat outside the United States, which will be welcome news to U.S. firms like Walmart and Starbucks that use WeChat’s embedded ‘mini-app’ programs to facilitate transactions and engage consumers in China, officials said.
The order will not bar transactions with WeChat-owner Tencent Holdings’ other businesses, including its online gaming operations, and will not prohibit Apple, Google or others from offering TikTok or WeChat apps anywhere outside the United States.
The bans are in response to a pair of executive orders issued by Trump on August 6 that gave the Commerce Department 45 days to determine what transactions to block from the apps he deemed pose a national security threat. That deadline expires on Sunday.
Commerce Department officials said they were taking the extraordinary step because of the risks the apps’ data collection poses. China and the companies have denied U.S. user data is collected for spying.
Ross said in a written statement “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 U.S. laws and regulations.”
The order is set to be published at 8:45 a.m. EDT (1245 GMT) on Friday, Commerce said.
POPULAR APPS
The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to purge “untrusted” Chinese apps from U.S. digital networks and has called TikTok and WeChat “significant threats.”
TikTok has 100 million users in the United States and is especially popular among younger Americans.
WeChat has had an average of 19 million daily active users in the United States, analytics firms Apptopia said in early August. It is popular among Chinese students, ex-pats and some Americans who have personal or business relationships in China.
WeChat is an all-in-one mobile app that combines services similar to Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Venmo. The app is an essential part of daily life for many in China and boasts more than 1 billion users.
The Commerce Department will not seek to compel people in the United States to remove the apps or stop using them but will not allow updates or new downloads. “We are aiming at a top corporate level. We’re not going to go out after the individual users,” one Commerce official said.
Over time, officials said, the lack of updates will degrade the apps usability.
“The expectation is that people will find alternative ways to do these actions,” a senior official said. “We expect the market to act and there will be more secure apps that will fill in these gaps that Americans can trust and that the United States government won’t have to take similar actions against.”
Commerce is also barring additional technical transactions with WeChat starting Sunday that will significantly reduce the usability and functionality of the app in the United States.
The order bars data hosting within the United States for WeChat, content delivery services and networks that can increase functionality and internet transit or peering services.
“What immediately is going to happen is users are going to experience a lag or lack of functionality,” a senior Commerce official said of WeChat users. “It may still be usable but it is not going to be as functional as it was.” There may be sporadic outages as well, the official said.
Commerce will bar the same set of technical transactions for TikTok, but that will not take effect until Nov. 12 to give the company additional time to see if ByteDance can reach a deal for its U.S. operations. The official said TikTok U.S. users would not see “a major difference” in the app’s performance until Nov. 12.
Commerce will not penalize people who use TikTok or WeChat in the United States.
The order does not bar data storage within the United States for WeChat or TikTok.
Some Americans may find workarounds. There is nothing that would bar an American from traveling to a foreign country and downloading either app, or potentially using a virtual private network and a desktop client, officials conceded.
Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Chris Sanders and Lincoln Feast and Edward Tobin
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles
Recent ORCL News
- Oracle Delivers New Electronic Health Record Innovations • PR Newswire (US) • 09/18/2024 01:00:00 PM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 09/18/2024 12:34:23 AM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 09/18/2024 12:33:33 AM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 09/18/2024 12:31:31 AM
- Oracle Supports the Veteran Interoperability Pledge • PR Newswire (US) • 09/17/2024 08:40:00 PM
- Oracle Releases Java 23 • PR Newswire (US) • 09/17/2024 02:30:00 PM
- New Oracle Cloud Service Helps Banks Quickly Identify Financial Crime Risk • PR Newswire (US) • 09/17/2024 12:00:00 PM
- Hyatt Selects Oracle OPERA Cloud as Property Management System for its Global Properties • PR Newswire (US) • 09/17/2024 11:45:00 AM
- Form 144 - Report of proposed sale of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 09/16/2024 03:35:42 PM
- Intel Secures $3.5 Billion Subsidy, Stellantis Backs EU Emissions Targets, BP and Apollo Reach $1 Billion Deal • IH Market News • 09/16/2024 10:03:27 AM
- OpenAI Unveils Strawberry AI Model Series; Boeing Stock Falls 4% Amid Strike; HR Surges 20% on Growth Forecast • IH Market News • 09/13/2024 10:12:55 AM
- Oracle Expands Multicloud Capabilities with AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure • PR Newswire (US) • 09/11/2024 06:30:00 PM
- Oracle Adds Powerful New AI Capabilities Across Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite • PR Newswire (US) • 09/11/2024 01:20:00 PM
- Oracle AI Agents Help Organizations Achieve New Levels of Productivity • PR Newswire (US) • 09/11/2024 01:18:00 PM
- Oracle Offers First Zettascale Cloud Computing Cluster • PR Newswire (US) • 09/11/2024 01:16:00 PM
- Oracle Helps Customers Build Smart and Responsive Supply Chains • PR Newswire (US) • 09/11/2024 01:14:00 PM
- Oracle Helps Customers Accelerate Progress on Sustainability Initiatives with Oracle Fusion Cloud Sustainability • PR Newswire (US) • 09/11/2024 01:12:00 PM
- Oracle Helps Healthcare Organizations Automate Inventory Management with RFID • PR Newswire (US) • 09/11/2024 01:10:00 PM
- Oracle Helps HR Teams Nurture Talent and Optimize Workforce Performance • PR Newswire (US) • 09/11/2024 01:08:00 PM
- Mixed Inflation Data May Lead To Initial Pullback on Wall Street • IH Market News • 09/11/2024 01:06:53 PM
- Oracle Unity CDP Helps Organizations Leverage AI to Grow Revenue • PR Newswire (US) • 09/11/2024 01:06:00 PM
- Oracle Helps Organizations Make B2B Buying Experiences Easier • PR Newswire (US) • 09/11/2024 01:04:00 PM
- Oracle Expands its Distributed Cloud Capabilities to Help Organizations Innovate with AI • PR Newswire (US) • 09/11/2024 01:02:00 PM
- Oracle Industry Playbooks Help Customers Grow Their Businesses • PR Newswire (US) • 09/11/2024 01:00:00 PM
- Uber Runs on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure • PR Newswire (US) • 09/11/2024 12:02:00 PM
VHAI - Vocodia Partners with Leading Political Super PACs to Revolutionize Fundraising Efforts • VHAI • Sep 19, 2024 11:48 AM
Dear Cashmere Group Holding Co. AKA Swifty Global Signs Binding Letter of Intent to be Acquired by Signing Day Sports • DRCR • Sep 19, 2024 10:26 AM
HealthLynked Launches Virtual Urgent Care Through Partnership with Lyric Health. • HLYK • Sep 19, 2024 8:00 AM
Element79 Gold Corp. Appoints Kevin Arias as Advisor to the Board of Directors, Strengthening Strategic Leadership • ELMGF • Sep 18, 2024 10:29 AM
Mawson Finland Limited Further Expands the Known Mineralized Zones at Rajapalot: Palokas step-out drills 7 metres @ 9.1 g/t gold & 706 ppm cobalt • MFL • Sep 17, 2024 9:02 AM
PickleJar Announces Integration With OptCulture to Deliver Holistic Fan Experiences at Venue Point of Sale • PKLE • Sep 17, 2024 8:00 AM