US President Donald Trump, on August 6, signed an executive order banning US transactions with Chinese internet major Bytedance, TikTok’s parent company. A similar order was signed banning US transactions with Tencent, the parent company of WeChat. Both the orders come in effect in 45 days. The executive orders also mention the Indian government banning TikTok, WeChat and 57 other ‘Chinese’ apps over national security concerns. This action comes less than a week after Microsoft confirmed that it was in talks to buy the TikTok business from ByteDance in four countries: the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It also said that it will complete these discussions no later than September 15. Going by that timeline, Trump’s executive order will kick in just a few days after Microsoft’s estimated deadline for the deal. The Financial Times also reported that aside from the four markers, Microsoft is also looking to takeover TikTok globally. Arguments made against TikTok and WeChat in the executive orders: The order against TikTok claimed that it “automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users including Internet and other network activity information such as location data and browsing and search histories”. It said that 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”. Similarly WeChat, “captures the personal and proprietary information of Chinese nationals…
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