Social-Media
Both TikTok and WeChat managed to escape their Sunday bans.
On Friday, it looked like the US was preparing to block new TikTok and WeChat downloads, two common Chinese-based applications that Trump's administration warned posed security risks to American users. The Commerce Department released an order banning new downloads from Sunday. And on Saturday, WeChat saw a sharp spike in new installations in the US, according to the Sensor Tower analytics site, with a spike of 800 per cent week-over-week.
But as of Sunday afternoon, most of them had obtained a withdrawal from the US ban, at least briefly.
President Trump said Saturday that he had made an agreement between TikTok, Oracle, and Walmart his "blessing," triggering a one-week wait from the Commerce Department to block TikTok. And a California judge granted a temporary injunction to block the WeChat administration's suspension.
The TikTok agreement seems to be a long way from the Trump administration 's initial desire for full sales of TikTok's US operations. Oracle will become a trusted tech affiliate and will host all U.S. customer data to protect related information networks.
Both Oracle and Walmart will take part in the TikTok Global pre-IPO funding round, in which they will take up to a combined 20 per cent stake in the new firm, TikTok Global, according to TikTok.
The deal has yet to be concluded, and some of the specifics appeared a little unclear as of Sunday morning. While both sides claimed the new corporation would be based in the U.S. and would carry 25.000 jobs, the President's announcement that the agreement contained a $5 billion contribution to U.S. education appeared shocking to TikTok's parent company ByteDance. Any deal must also be ratified by the Chinese Authorities. But for the time being, the Commerce Department has postponed any ban on TikTok until 27 September.
The future in the US is much more unclear for WeChat. Judge Laurel Beeler wrote in her order that the August case by a group of WeChat users revealed significant concerns on the merits of the First Amendment argument. Beeler wrote that the plaintiffs' testimony represents the fact that WeChat is essentially the only medium of contact for those in the world, not only because China bans other applications, but also because Chinese speakers have minimal English speakers.
Beeler added that while the US government identified "important" risks to national security, there was scant little evidence that its successful ban on WeChat for all US users answers these concerns.
As of Sunday afternoon, the Commerce Department had not spoken on the order of Judge Beeler.
