Trump issues sweeping executive orders against TikTok and WeChat

In another escalation of the White House's vendetta against popular video sharing app TikTok, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order against its parent company ByteDance. This means that, starting 45 days from today, everyone in the U.S. will be banned from doing any business with ByteDance or any of its subsidiaries — including TikTok.

The U.S. government has been making a lot of noise over the past few weeks about TikTok potentially sharing user data with the Chinese government, claiming that the app is a threat to national security. Of course, both Facebookand Twitteralready provide foreign governments with user data, but the fact that ByteDance is a Chinese company has been a real sticking point for Trump.

The president also signed an executive order against messaging app WeChat and its parent company, Chinese media conglomerate Tencent, accusing it of sharing user data with the Chinese government as well. Tencent owns League of Legendsdeveloper Riot Games and has a significant stake in Fortnite developer Epic Games — not to mention numerous other properties — so Trump's ban on transactions with its subsidiaries may have far-reaching implications.

"This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage," states the executive order against TikTok.

The executive orders further claim TikTok and WeChat censor content the Chinese government considers "politically sensitive" and can be used to spread disinformation, "such as when TikTok videos spread debunked conspiracy theories about the origins of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus." Which is doubly true of Facebook and Twitter, but okay.

TikTok has strenuously denied such allegations, maintaining that the Chinese government has no access to its users' data. It has also previously acknowledged that while it did censor content critical of the Chinese government, its moderation policy has since changed.

"Let us be very clear: TikTok does not remove content based on sensitivities related to China. We have never been asked by the Chinese government to remove any content and we would not do so if asked. Period," read a statement from TikTokin October last year.

TikTok also withdrew from Hong Kong in July in response to the controversial new national security laws which could have required it to censor content or supply the government with user data.

Both of Trump's executive orders state that exactly which transactions are barred will be specified when the orders come into effect, so you may still be able to purchase Fortnitedances without violating the directive. However, it's likely both TikTok and WeChat will be impacted as the named targets of Trump's decrees.

TikTok later issued a statement responding to the executive order, saying it was "shocked" by the move and slammed the Trump administration for doing so without due process.

"For nearly a year, we have sought to engage with the U.S. government in good faith to provide a constructive solution to the concerns that have been expressed. What we encountered instead was that the Administration paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses," the statement reads.

"We made clear our intentions to work with the appropriate officials to devise a solution to benefit our users, creators, partners, employees, and the broader community in the United States. There has been, and continues to be, no due process or adherence to the law," it continues. "The text of the decision makes it plain that there has been a reliance on unnamed "reports" with no citations, fears that the app "may be" used for misinformation campaigns with no substantiation of such fears, and concerns about the collection of data that is industry standard for thousands of mobile apps around the world."

The company reiterated its statement that "TikTok has never shared user data with the Chinese government, nor censored content at its request," and highlighted its "willingness to pursue a full sale of the U.S. business to an American company."

TikTok's statement concluded by saying that the executive order "risks undermining global businesses' trust in the United States' commitment to the rule of law," and "sets a dangerous precedent for the concept of free expression and open markets," before indicating the company's intention to pursue legal options.

Tencent told Mashable in a statement, "The company is reviewing the executive order to get a full understanding."

UPDATE: Aug. 7, 2020, 4:32 p.m. AEST A White House official has since clarified that the executive order relating to Tencent will only impact WeChat, according to the Los Angeles Times. This clarification isn't unexpected considering how broadly defined the order is, but it's still a significant blow — particularly to many in the U.S.'s Chinese community who rely on the app.

UPDATE: Aug. 7, 2020, 10:55 a.m. BST TikTok has issued a statement on the Trump administration's executive order. This has been included at the foot of this story.

UPDATE: Aug. 7, 2020, 12:38 p.m. BST Tencent responded to Mashable's request for comment, which has been added to the article.