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US President Joe Biden has withdrawn a series of executive orders signed by former President Donald Trump, that targetted Chinese firms.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