TikTok And WeChat To Be Banned From United States On Sunday

WASHINGTON DC – Bytedance’s TikTok and Tencent’s WeChat social networking apps will be barred from US downloads starting Sunday, the Trump administration said, capping weeks of speculation and efforts by US and Chinese authorities to come to an agreement that would allow the apps to continue operating.

TikTok’s future in the US has been in limbo since early this summer after Trump targeted the app over concerns its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, could be forced to give data about American users to the Chinese government. ByteDance says that it keeps user data in the US with a backup in Singapore. The company has said it wouldn’t give data to the Chinese government if asked.

Trump also signed an executive order on Aug. 6 banning US transactions on WeChat, calling the messaging app owned by Chinese giant Tencent a “significant” threat to national security.