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TikTok and WeChat get reprieve as US Commerce Department removes apps from prohibited transactions list
- The Biden administration has reversed the Trump-era rule from last September that sought to limit the use of the Chinese apps
- Under new rules, the Commerce Department is tasked with assessing any apps associated with foreign adversaries and their national security risks
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The US Commerce Department said Monday it was rescinding a list of prohibited transactions with TikTok and WeChat that were issued in September as the Trump administration sought to block new US downloads of both Chinese-owned apps.
The withdrawals came after President Joe Biden earlier this month withdrew a series of Trump-era executive orders that sought to ban new downloads of Tencent-owned WeChat and TikTok, and ordered a Commerce Department review of security concerns posed by those apps and others.
The Commerce Department under Trump also had sought to ban other transactions that would have effectively banned WeChat’s use in the United States and later sought similar restrictions that would have barred TikTok’s use.
The department did not immediately comment.
The Biden order directed the Commerce Department to monitor software applications like TikTok that could affect US national security, as well as to make recommendations within 120 days to protect US data acquired or accessible by companies controlled by foreign adversaries.
WeChat, which has been downloaded at least 19 million times by US users, is widely used as a medium for services, games and payments.
Biden’s 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.
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