President Joe Biden issued an executive order on Wednesday revoking a Trump-era ban of the popular video-sharing app TikTok over purported national security concerns. Instead, his administration will conduct its own review of apps with ties to China and other “foreign adversaries.”
The Executive Order on Protecting Americans’ Sensitive Data from Foreign Adversaries overturns Trump’s August 2020 executive order instructing TikTok’s owner ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American company under the threat of a shutdown in the US.
The Commerce Department is now instructed to carry out “evidence-based” analysis of transactions involving apps that are manufactured or supplied or controlled by China or any other foreign adversary, as laid out below:
“The Federal Government should evaluate these threats through rigorous, evidence-based analysis and should address any unacceptable or undue risks consistent with overall national security, foreign policy, and economic objectives, including the preservation and demonstration of America’s core values and fundamental freedoms.”
Additionally, the department will also provide recommendations for protecting the personal health and genetic information of US citizens from apps connected to foreign adversaries.
The widely used messaging app WeChat was also included in Trump’s executive order and is no longer banned as well.
Back in September 2020, Trump said he approved a deal allowing Oracle and Walmart to purchase a stake in TikTok, but it never came to fruition.
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