Joe Biden revoked Donald Trump-era ban on WeChat and TikTok

Daily US Times: President Joe Biden has revoked an executive order from former President Donald Trump banning Chinese apps WeChat and TikTok in the US.

The ban faced a series of legal challenges in the US and never came into force.

Instead, the US commerce department will now review TikTok and WeChat’s designed and developed by those in “the jurisdiction of a foreign adversary”, such as China.

President Biden said his country should use an “evidence-based approach” to see if they pose a risk to US national security.

WeChat and TikTok did not offer comment on the latest development.

Former President Donald Trump ordered the ban on new downloads of the viral video app TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm Bytedance, in 2020.

He described the app at the time as a threat to national security.

A proposal was produced that would have seen Walmart and Oracle owning a US entity of the service, and taking responsibility for handling TikTok’s content moderation and US user data.

But a series of legal challenges in the US, and the fact Mr Trump was due to leave office shortly afterwards, meant neither the ban nor the involvement of the US companies ever came to action.

In his new executive order, President Joe Biden said that the federal government should evaluate threats posed by China-based software ans apps through “rigorous, evidence-based analysis”, and should address “any unacceptable or undue risks consistent with overall foreign policy, national security and economic objectives”.

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