It seems that the situation in the White House after the news about the purchase of TikTok should be discharged, but US President Donald Trump cannot calm down. In the past few months, the US government has been trying to ban various technology companies from China due to concerns about data privacy.
Recall that India has banned more than a hundred Chinese-made apps, primarily TikTok, and the US is now following suit.
Despite talks between Microsoft and TikTok, President Trump signed two additional orders today, focusing primarily on WeChat and TikTok. The order regarding TikTok states that the app records “browsing and search history”.
WeChat and TikTok: Trump signs the ban of these applications
“TikTok, a mobile app owned by China’s ByteDance Ltd., has reportedly been downloaded over 175 million times in the US and over a billion times worldwide. 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 order reads. “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.” The White House quotes.
Specifically, the order prohibits any operation of TikTok in the United States starting September 20. This date is as close as possible to September 15 – the deadline for when Microsoft should resolve the issue of the acquisition of US assets of TikTok. After this date, ByteDance will not be able to generate income in the US market or pay its American employees.
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A similar order was also signed for WeChat, a popular Chinese messenger owned by Tencent Holdings Limited. He sets the same ban period – September 20. This action could have serious consequences. The company has stakes in hundreds of companies operating in the United States, including Activision Blizzard and Tesla Motors.
Facebook is done copying TikTok – launches Instagram Reel
Chinese short video making app, TikTok, has been at the center of controversies in recent times. TikTok took the market by storm offering what other platforms never dreamed of. Since the explosive growth of TikTok hit the public domain, there have been plots to create a competitor. Facebook’s latest creation seems to be a good copy of what TikTok is offering. Yesterday, Facebook launched Instagram Reel, a short video application in the U.S. which aims to rival TikTok. Instagram Reel is not only for the U.S., it will also be available in over 50 other countries and regions.
Facebook’s move comes as Microsoft plans to acquire TikTok. Due to the pressure from the White House, TikTok’s parent company “Byte Beat” has agreed to divest part of TikTok’s business. The large-scale launch of Instagram Reel by Facebook will further intensify competition with TikTok. The two apps, Instagram Reel and TikTok are very similar. Both should attract young American users. In the past, it used to be China copying everything American. However, the reverse is the case in this regard.
Trump does some thing right after all! These Chinese apps should have been blocked a long time back. Better late than never.
Why though? I mean there is no evidence whatsoever that user data has been sacrificed or that the government is using backdoors to spy on foreign citizens, which cannot be said about some other US apps. The US government is running this huge anti-China campaign without presenting a single piece of evidence. The US is literally doing the same as China now – blocking apps because of ” national security”, with the exception, that the US bans also affect people in other countries, given the previous article is right and WeChat will be removed completely from the App Store in all markets. I don’t see a reason, why a foreign president should be able to decide whether people in Germany or Austria or elsewhere… can use an app or not.