Biden repeals Trump TikTok decree

AFP – President Joe Biden on Wednesday, June 9, repealed the decrees of Donald Trump, which sought to ban the Chinese-owned mobile applications TikTok and WeChat in the United States over national security concerns.

A White House statement claimed that instead of banning these and eight other Chinese apps, the Biden administration called for “rigorous evidence-based analysis to address the risks” of Internet social media platforms controlled by foreign entities.

Biden’s order is intended to identify any ” connected software application that may pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States and the American people,” the statement said.

That includes “applications that are owned, controlled or operated by individuals that support military or intelligence activities of foreign adversaries, or that are involved in malicious cyber activities, or that involve applications that collect sensitive personal data.”

The decree asks various federal departments and agencies to develop guidelines “to protect sensitive personal data (…) including personally identifiable information and genetic information.”

TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is estimated to have about 1 billion users worldwide, including more than 100 million in the United States, and is especially popular with young smartphone users.

WeChat, which is part of Chinese tech giant Tencent, is a very popular “super application” in China that includes messaging, e-commerce and much more.

The text of the presidential decree gives a period of 120 days for the heads of the departments of Commerce, State, Defense, National Security and the director of National Intelligence to issue a report with recommendations.

Trump had said that the Chinese-owned apps posed national security risks and had tried to force the sale of TikTok to American investors.

The former president accused WeChat and TikTok of collecting confidential data and sharing it with the Chinese government. The companies have always denied the espionage accusations.