Washington
President Joe Biden on Wednesday withdrew a series of Trump-era executive orders that sought to ban new downloads of WeChat and TikTok, and ordered a Commerce Department review of security concerns posed by those apps and others.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.
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 the 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.
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 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 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 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 the 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.”
