President Biden Drops Trump Quest To Ban TikTok, WeChat

US President Joe Biden has withdrawn a series of executive orders signed by former President Donald Trump, that targetted Chinese firms.

President Biden cancelled Trump’s orders just before he flew to the United Kingdom on his first overseas visit of his presidency.

President Trump in August 2020 had signed executive orders that sought to prevent new downloads of WeChat and TikTok in the United States.

Executive Order

The Trump administration had argued that firms such as TikTok posed a national security concerns as the personal data of US users could be obtained by China’s government.

The Trump administration had ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok to a US buyer as part of an order from the Trump administration.

A number of US firms were in the running to acquire TikTok’s operations, but after rejecting Microsoft’s approach, ByteDance revealed a partnership deal with Oracle and Walmart.

But TikTok continued to pursue legal action against the US government move, and the US courts blocked President Trump’s order and they never took effect.

In February Biden halted TikTok’s purchase by Oracle and Walmart halted indefinitely.

Trump cancellations

Now according to a White House statement, President Biden is undoing the orders of President Trump.

He is also undoing the January executive order signed by Trump in the final days of his presidency, that targeted eight other communications and financial technology software applications.

Meanwhile, a separate US national security review of TikTok, that began in late 2019, remains ongoing, the White House has confirmed.

Tom Jowitt

Tom Jowitt is a leading British tech freelancer and long standing contributor to Silicon UK. He is also a bit of a Lord of the Rings nut...

Recent Posts

Raimondo Downplays Huawei Smartphone Chip

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says Huawei's flagship smartphone chip 'years behind' US technology, shows…

21 hours ago

Cloud Companies Reject Broadcom VMware Pricing Changes

Cloud companies, business user groups say Broadcom price changes do not address their concerns, as…

21 hours ago

UK Lawsuit Claims Grindr Shared HIV Status

Dating app Grindr sued over claims it shared sensitive user data, including HIV status, with…

22 hours ago

Meta Opens Quest VR OS To Third Party Gadget Makers

Meta Platforms opens operating system behind Quest virtual reality headsets to third parties amidst competition…

22 hours ago

EU Prepares Action Against ‘Addictive’ TikTok Lite Features

European Commission may ban rewards feature in recently launched TikTok Lite that it calls 'toxic…

23 hours ago

TikTok Says New US Ban Effort Would ‘Trample Free Speech’

US House of Representatives passes new bill combining TikTok measures with foreign aid, may face…

2 days ago