Trump administration bans US downloads of TikTok, WeChat from September 20

The US Commerce Department on September 18 issued an order  announcing prohibitions, which will come into effect on September 20, on transactions relating to Chinese mobile applications WeChat and TikTok, to safeguard the national security of the United States.

These are the prohibitions as cited in the order: "Any provision of service to distribute or maintain the WeChat or TikTok mobile applications, constituent code, or application updates through an online mobile application store in the US; Any provision of services through the WeChat mobile application for the purpose of transferring funds or processing payments within the US."

Officials told Reuters that the ban on new US downloads of TikTok could still be rescinded by President Donald Trump before it takes effect late on Sunday as the app's parent company ByteDance races to clinch an agreement over the fate of its US operations.

ByteDance has been in talks with Oracle Corp and others to create a new company, TikTok Global, that aims to address US concerns about the security of its users' data.

"The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has demonstrated the means and motives to use these apps to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and the economy of the U.S. Today’s announced prohibitions, when combined, protect users in the US by eliminating access to these applications and significantly reducing their functionality," the Commerce Department has said in a statement.

The US government has given TikTok until November 12 to resolve national security concerns posed by the app, following which the prohibitions may be lifted.

The ban comes in response to the executive orders issued by Donald Trump on August 6 that gave the Commerce Department 45 days to determine which transactions to block from the said apps, a deadline that expires on September 20.

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 order prohibits data hosting within the United States for WeChat, content delivery services and networks that can increase functionality and internet transit or peering services.

However, it does not bar data storage within the United States for WeChat or TikTok.

(With inputs from Reuters)