TikTok’s artificial intelligence interactive interface, as well as its information push service, fell within the restricted technologies. At the end of August, China’s Ministry of Commerce published a revised catalog of technologies prohibited or restricted for export from China. In the midst of the bombardment of American actions and reactions, the Chinese government had its own concerns about a possible sale of TikTok’s valuable algorithm. However, when ByteDance asserted it would in fact keep its 80 percent share, Trump promptly reversed course, and continued his campaign against the app. Oracle indicated ByteDance would eventually lose its ownership share, and President Trump initially indicated his approval. In September, the Commerce Department announce d further prohibitions on Internet hosting and content delivery of the two apps, as well as on use of WeChat’s popular WeChat Pay function for transfer of funds within the U.S.īytedance responded to the TikTok sanctions by proposing the creation of a new company, TikTok Global, in which American companies Oracle and Walmart would hold a 20 percent stake, to ByteDance’s 80 percent ownership. (CFIUS), which in 2019 had conducted an investigation of the acquisition of the American company, would be the mechanism to enforce the Treasury order. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. The initial executive orders were quickly followed with a Treasury Department order that ByteDance divest itself of Musical.ly, the U.S.-based social media platform ByteDance had purchased in 2017 and merged into Tiktok. Chinese students and expatriates, along with some Americans with personal or business interests in China, would be most affected by the restrictions. user base was far smaller, at some 19 million daily active users. While the number of American TikTok users was vast, the app’s content and demographic makeup indicate the threat to national security was likely overstated.Īs for WeChat, its U.S. The app allows users to make short videos often including dancing, lip-synching, and comedy, and fostered a cadre of celebrities with great appeal to the app’s youthful community – as of June 2020, some 62 percent of TikTok users were younger than 30.
At the time of his announcement, TikTok revealed it had some 100 million monthly active users and more than 50 million daily active users in the U.S. Trump asserted in his orders that the two apps threatened the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the U.S. Recent American court decisions and post-Trump political actions appear to throw lifelines to both Chinese tech services, at least in the short run.
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Following a series of additional prohibitions, as well as administrative and judicial delays in implementing them, the Trump administration in January ceded authority to the Biden presidency, with both apps still very much alive among U.S. In August 2020, President Donald Trump took aim at two dominant Chinese apps, signing executive orders intending to restrict American use of both TikTok and WeChat.
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