The Trump administration had approved a deal to give American companies Walmart and Oracle minority TikTok stakes. Trump was all set to ban both the TikTok as well as WeChat, the controversial social media apps. However, the U.S. District Court Judge Laurel Beeler of the San Francisco District Court issued a preliminary injunction. Thus halting the Trump administration’s plan to boycott the Chinese applications from the App Store.
US Postpones WeChat and TikTok Ban
TikTok, the rising video sharing platform made a deal with US corporations Oracle and Walmart. According to this deal, the United States will allow the use of the app in the country by separating it from its Chinese owner. Moreover, the TikTok owner even confirmed to sell a 20% stake that will be shared among Walmart and Oracle. Interestingly, Walmart initially backed Microsoft’s bid to purchase TikTok before ByteDance rejected the offer. The new corporation decides to establish its headquarters in the U.S. with up to 25,000 jobs. Besides, they are also ready to use Oracle for hosting the content. Because of this, the Commerce Department conceded seven days of prohibition. As of today, the US department has concluded to postpone the WeChat and TikTok ban until November. Currently, both the apps are restricted from using the US hosting services, CDN, and transaction services. Although both the applications are different, still their threat impacts are similar. Both Chinese apps collect user data, locations, search history, network activity, and browser history. Besides, these apps are also a functioning member of China’s civil-military fusion. This is a big risk and concern to the national security of any country. Hence, the use of TikTok and WeChat can create an unsuitable risk to the US. Last month, the WeChat users filed a suit against the Trump administration after the Commerce Department declared to ban the application from the App store. But most of the Chinese speaking users require this Tencent owned app. It is the only means of communication for US citizens. Hence, the WeChat ban limits the free speech rights of citizens. Considering this factor, the US Judge has halted Trump’s ban on this Chinese messaging app. Additionally, the Judge addressed that there are alternatives to a complete ban. Similar to what Australia has done, the US department can start barring WeChat from the official government devices. Besides, the US postpones the TikTok ban until September 27 since the app owner is negotiating a possible deal to give Oracle and Walmart an oversight of United States user data. Source Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.
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