TikTok and WeChat managed to avoid Sunday's ban

On Friday, the United States appeared ready to block new downloads of TikTok and WeChat, two popular apps based in China that the Trump administration has warned that they pose security threats to American users.

 

The Commerce Department issued an order that would have banned new downloads from Sunday.

 

On Saturday, WeChat saw a sharp spike in new installations in the US, according to the Analytics platform Sensor Tower, with an increase of 800 percent on a weekly basis.

 

But as of Sunday afternoon, TikTok and WeChat have been pushed back from the US ban, at least temporarily.

 

President Trump said on Saturday that he had given his approval of a deal between Walmart, Oracle and TikTok, which led to a one-week delay on the TikTok ban, while a California judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing the WeChat ban in the United States.

 

TikTok deal appears to be a far cry from the Trump administration's original request to sell all app operations in the US.

 

Oracle has become a trusted technology partner, will host all US user data, and secure the associated computer systems.

 

Walmart and Oracle are participating in TikTok Global's financing round prior to the IPO in which they can take a cumulative stake of up to 20 percent in the new company.

 

ByteDance said Monday: It will own 80 percent of TikTok Global, and the deal does not include the transfer of any algorithms.

 

While all parties said: The new company will be based in the United States and will provide 25,000 jobs, the president's statement that the deal includes a $ 5 billion donation to education in the United States seemed to surprise BiteDance.

 

Today, Monday, ByteDance contradicted Trump in a blog post entitled "Clarifying unfounded rumors about TikTok," saying: The so-called $ 5 billion tax payment to the US Treasury was just an estimate of the taxes that TikTok Global would pay over several years If the project is successful.

 

For WeChat, the future in the United States is more uncertain, as federal judge Laurel Beeler wrote in her order that the lawsuit filed by a group of WeChat users in August raised serious questions regarding the Executive Order's threat to First Amendment rights.

 

Beeler wrote: The plaintiffs' evidence reflects that WeChat is the only means of communication for many in the community, because China bans other applications, and because Chinese speakers with limited English proficiency have no other options.

 

Beeler added that the ban on WeChat does not provide sufficient evidence that it is narrowly designed to resolve the US government's national security concerns regarding the app.

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