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The
administration of former President Donald Trump had attempted to
block new users from downloading the apps and ban other
technical transactions that Chinese-owned short video-sharing
app TikTok and WeChat both said would effectively block the
apps' use in the United States.
The courts blocked those orders, which never took effect.
A separate U.S. national security review of TikTok launched in
late 2019 remains active and ongoing, a White House official
said, declining to offer any details. The White House remains
very concerned about the data risks of TikTok users, another
administration official told reporters.
The Biden order directs the Commerce Department to monitor
software applications like TikTok that could affect U.S.
national security, as well as to make recommendations within 120
days to protect U.S. data acquired or accessible by companies
controlled by foreign adversaries.
TikTok declined to comment. WeChat did not immediately comment.
"This is a positive step in the right direction," said Gao Feng,
spokesperson at the Chinese commerce ministry, at a regular
press conference on Thursday. Gao added that China had noticed
that the United States requires a new security review of the
apps, and hopes that "the U.S. will treat Chinese companies
fairly and avoid politicizing economic and trade issues."
WeChat, which has been downloaded at least 19 million times by
U.S. users, is widely used as a medium for services, games and
payments.
Michael Bien, the lead lawyer for the WeChat Users Alliance,
which had sued to block the Trump order, praised the Biden
administration for revoking the "wrong-headed ban on WeChat that
... would have led to the unprecedented shutdown of a major
platform for communications relied on by millions of people in
the United States."
Biden's new executive order revokes the WeChat and TikTok orders
Trump issued in August, along with another in January that
targeted eight other communications and financial technology
software applications.
The January Trump order directed officials to ban transactions
with eight Chinese apps including Ant Group's Alipay and Tencent
Holdings Ltd's QQ Wallet and WeChat pay; no bans have been
issued to date.
The Trump administration contended that WeChat and TikTok posed
national security concerns because sensitive personal data of
U.S. users could be collected by China’s government.
Both TikTok, which has over 100 million users in the United
States, and WeChat have denied posing national security
concerns.
In February, Reuters reported corporate sponsors raced back to
TikTok after some had paused or delayed efforts following
Trump's August announcement. General Motors' flagship Chevrolet
brand began advertising on TikTok in February through its own
channel.
The Trump administration had appealed judicial orders blocking
the bans on TikTok and WeChat, but after Biden took office in
January, the U.S. Justice Department asked to pause the appeals.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice declined to
comment. Status reports are due in the appeals cases on Friday.
Biden's order says collecting of data from Americans "threatens
to provide foreign adversaries with access to that information."
The order directs the Commerce Department to "evaluate on a
continuing basis" any transactions that "pose an undue risk of
catastrophic effects on the security or resiliency of the
critical infrastructure or digital economy of the United
States."
Biden's executive order requires within 60 days that U.S.
intelligence and Homeland Security agencies provide
vulnerability and threat assessments on U.S. data controlled by
foreign adversaries to the Commerce Department as it conducts
its review.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley said on Twitter the withdrawal of
the Trump orders are "a major mistake - shows alarming
complacency regarding #China’s access to Americans’ personal
information, as well as #China’s growing corporate influence."
Last week, Biden signed an executive order that bans U.S.
investment in certain Chinese companies in the defense and
surveillance technology sectors. The order replaced a similar
Trump-era order that did not withstand legal scrutiny.
(Reporting by David Shepardson and Karen Freifeld; Editing by
Scott Malone, Chizu Nomiyama, Howard Goller, Peter Graff)
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