President Donald Trump issued executive orders on Thursday banning any U.S. transactions with ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns video-sharing app TikTok, and Tencent, owner of the WeChat app, starting in 45 days. The orders come as the Trump administration said this week it was stepping up efforts to eliminate “untrusted” Chinese apps from U.S. digital networks, caling the Chinese-owned short-video app TikTok and messenger app WeChat “significant threats.”
The order would effectively ban WeChat in the United States in 45 days by barring “to the extent permitted under applicable law, any transaction that is related to WeChat by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with Tencent Holdings Ltd.”
Trump said this week he would support the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to Microsoft if the U.S. government got a “substantial portion” of the sales price but warned he will ban the service in the United States on Sept. 15.
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