official whitehouse link

I don't use or care about either app, but it's good to see him continue to turn the screws on the CCP.

The intro:

quote:

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,

I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that additional steps must be taken to deal with the national emergency with respect to the information and communications technology and services supply chain declared in Executive Order 13873 of May 15, 2019 (Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain). Specifically, the spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People’s Republic of China (China) continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. At this time, action must be taken to address the threat posed by one mobile application in particular, TikTok.

TikTok, a video-sharing mobile application owned by the Chinese company ByteDance Ltd., has reportedly been downloaded over 175 million times in the United States and over one billion times globally. TikTok automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users, including Internet and other network activity information such as location data and browsing and search histories. This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.

TikTok also reportedly censors content that the Chinese Communist Party deems politically sensitive, such as content concerning protests in Hong Kong and China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. This mobile application may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party, such as when TikTok videos spread debunked conspiracy theories about the origins of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.

These risks are real. The Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, and the United States Armed Forces have already banned the use of TikTok on Federal Government phones. The Government of India recently banned the use of TikTok and other Chinese mobile applications throughout the country; in a statement, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asserted that they were “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.” American companies and organizations have begun banning TikTok on their devices. The United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security.

good, and perhaps thats a shot at Microsoft and their attempt to buy TikTok from the Chinese

what does that tell you about the loyalty of Microsoft

Do Instagram next, Mister President!

We'll have all the narcissists committing mass suicide.

Section 1. (Tiktok)

(a) The following actions shall be prohibited beginning 45 days after the date of this order, to the extent permitted under applicable law: any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd. (a.k.a. Zìjié Tiàodòng), Beijing, China, or its subsidiaries, in which any such company has any interest, as identified by the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) under section 1(c) of this order.

(b) The prohibition in subsection (a) of this section applies except to the extent provided by statutes, or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted before the date of this order.

(c) 45 days after the date of this order, the Secretary shall identify the transactions subject to subsection (a) of this section.


Section 1. (WeChat)

(a) The following actions shall be prohibited beginning 45 days after the date of this order, 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. (a.k.a. Téngxùn Kònggǔ Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī), Shenzhen, China, or any subsidiary of that entity, as identified by the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) under section 1(c) of this order.

(b) The prohibition in subsection (a) of this section applies except to the extent provided by statutes, or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted before the date of this order.

(c) 45 days after the date of this order, the Secretary shall identify the transactions subject to subsection (a) of this section.


The orders ban "transactions" that are not defined yet. Transaction generally means something involving exchange of currency or other tangible consideration. Using the app(s) for free is not a transaction.

I have used WeChat since 2012 because I have done a lot of business travel in China. It is the primary messaging and social media platform, and now has the functions of FaceTime, along with text translation, a payment system, train/airline ticketing, and more. Interestingly, the social media aspect of WeChat is much better about individual privacy - posts you make are visible to friends (or public if you choose) but comments by friends and your replies to them can only be seen by people you know in common, even if the post is public.

The payment system cannot be used with US credit cards and bank cards, so the only way for an American to use it is to give cash to a Chinese friend and have them send it back to you electronically to fill up your wallet. Banning this doesn't accomplish much.

Given the current tensions and travel restrictions I have no idea if/when I will go back. But there is $30M of capital equipment for a new factory that I was supposed to be present for the runoff at the supplier and then for some of the installation. For us to sell product in China, we have to build it there to be competitive with the locals on cost. We don't build product in China to export back to the US. This is heavy industrial stuff, not consumer products.

Despite the CCP, the Chinese people and their traditional culture (pre-Mao) are great. I have many friends that I would prefer not to lose contact with, so I will be looking for alternatives.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Do Instagram next, Mister President!

We'll have all the narcissists committing mass suicide.

Please! I’ll chip in a $100 if he does it. Instacrap, Fakebook, Snap-Crap, let’s end it all for the betterment of the world!

Now I see the angle:

Apple putting Tiktok and WeChat in their app stores around the world is a "transaction" with the software developers. Same for Google and their Android app stores.

Banning US companies Apple and Google from putting these apps in their app stores will kill them globally. This is a much bigger deal than banning them in the US. And it will absolutely kill Apple iPhone and Android sales in China. I think Apple and Google may be changing their politics soon...

Well played, Mr. Trump.

Clever, then, if that's what's up...

(President Trump using the US based (global) App Stores. both apple and google, as global choke-points.)

Talk about giving an EO some reach.

Excellent move. I see he is playing chess again

I cannot imagine how anybody outside of China could possibly think using an app created in China, with it's servers in China, is a good idea <smh>

IME, Chinese software has all the "quality" of Chinese manufactured goods, so, even if these companies aren't harvesting data at the behest of their government, they're probably leaky and vulnerability-ridden as hell, anyway.

Like I said, above...

quote:

TikTok Secretly Collected MAC Addresses
(August 11 & 12, 2020)

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the TikTok video-sharing app collected MAC addresses from Android users for more than a year. The app hid the questionable activity with encryption. The activity was conducted for 15 months, ending in November 2019. (Please note that the WSJ story is behind a paywall.)

Read more in:
- https://threatpost.com/tiktok-surreptitiously-collected-android-user-data-using-google-prohibited-tactic/158289/
- https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-tracked-user-data-using-tactic-banned-by-google-11597176738 (paywall)

Love this President!

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
I cannot imagine how anybody outside of China could possibly think using an app created in China, with it's servers in China, is a good idea <smh>

IME, Chinese software has all the "quality" of Chinese manufactured goods, so, even if these companies aren't harvesting data at the behest of their government, they're probably leaky and vulnerability-ridden as hell, anyway.

By banning all other social media, WeChat is now the only platform in China, and used by almost everyone. It started as a data based text messaging application (like What's App) to avoid SMS text fees, and photo posting with comments (like instagram or Facebook but simplified. It has evolved to include voice messaging, peer-to-peer audio and now video, a cashless payment system, text translation for numerous languages, and various other features. Now some vendors will only accept WeChat Pay (or Ali Pay), such as unmanned parking garages and lots. Scan the QR code on the sign to pay and the gate opens. Taxis are still cash though.

If you do business in China or have to communicate with people there, you need to use WeChat, period. It is actually a very functional and streamlined app purposefully written for phones. I have tried to get coworkers and friends to just use iMessage for iPhone-to-iPhone messages because it is more secure but they act like it's a huge inconvenience. And with many Chinese moving to Huawei phones WeChat works cross-platform, whereas iMessage does not. This is similar to how friends and coworkers in Latin American use What's App for everything (and in India as well).

The Chinese gov't does censor stuff, especially public posts and blogs that are critical of the CCP. And yes, it is clear the move to WeChat pay allows monitoring of everything people spend money on. I don't use the payment system.

why not just use a phone?

From what I read somewhere, is that millions of Chinese that live in the USA use these apps solely to communicate with their families and loved ones in China. Some do this daily. Without the app allowed in the USA, it is now putting much scrutiny and pressure on the Chinese government. Plus I believe that the chinese app makers of these apps are now losing millions of dollars daily. Trump knows what he is doing. Trump wins again !!! God Bless

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
why not just use a phone?

WeChat is much, much more than a communications tool. It does so much, it's almost an operating system in and of itself.

"In China, WeChat does more than any app rightfully should" -- NYT, 2020-08-07

And that's only the stuff to which its makers admit.

quote:

Originally posted by VBVAGUY:
Plus I believe that the chinese app makers of these apps are now losing millions of dollars daily.

Do you think the CCP really cares about the money?

I never paid very close attention because I'd never in a million years load a Chinese "social" app, or an app that used China-based servers, on my mobile devices, anyway. But, since this came up, I've done a bit of light digging.

In short: The record of these apps and companies is appalling. They make Facebook and Alphabet (neither of which I trust any further than I can spit) look good, by comparison. You couldn't pay me to run these apps.

President Trump is right to ban their use in the U.S., IMO.

Remember that Microsoft and our favorite vaccine taker wanted to buy TikTok from the Chinese.

Sort of tells you a lot about where his loyalties reside - and it’s not with the USA