Biden bins Trump ban on TikTok

• US president’s executive order directs secretary of commerce to evaluate apps and take action against those that pose a security risk

US President Joe Biden is revoking Trump-era bans on the Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat and instead will review software applications from foreign adversaries that could pose a risk to Americans’ sensitive data.

US President Joe Biden is revoking Trump-era bans on the Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat and instead will review software applications from foreign adversaries that could pose a risk to Americans’ sensitive data.

Biden, in an executive order, is directing commerce secretary Gina Raimondo to evaluate the apps and take action against those that pose a security risk.

The order replaces former President Donald Trump’s actions, aimed at Chinese companies including TikTok owner ByteDance and WeChat owner Tencent, which tried to ban the use of those apps in the US.

Trump’s measures have been blocked by federal judges, who said the former administration had not shown those apps posed a national security threat justifying a ban. The new order aims to clarify the criteria that the US views as harming Americans’ sensitive data, officials said.

The data includes personally identifiable information and genetic information that would go to people linked to foreign adversaries, according to a White House fact sheet. A national security review into the sale of TikTok to a US company is continuing and not connected to Wednesday’s action, an administration official said.

China will continue to safeguard the interests of its companies, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a media briefing in Beijing.

“China urges the US side to earnestly respect the principles of market economy and international and economic trade rules; stop overstretching the concept of national security; stop abusing state power to suppress Chinese hi-tech companies; and treat Chinese enterprises in a fair, just and nondiscriminatory manner,” he said.

The US announcement came as Biden on Wednesday left Washington for a week-long trip to Europe where China is expected to be a focus of discussion among the G7 nations.

The new administration’s framework to evaluate apps will be flexible, allowing it to take a tailored approach that addresses the risks of each company, one US official said. When pressed during a briefing, administration officials said TikTok and WeChat could be part of the commerce department review but declined to say whether the revised order still left them subject to a potential ban. Commerce will take action under existing authority that allows it to block transactions in the information and communications technology services supply chain. This authority was issued by Trump and is being implemented by the Biden administration.

The US WeChat Users Alliance, which successfully sued the US government over Trump’s restrictions, said it welcomed the move to revoke the ban. Trump’s “wrong-headed ban on WeChat” would have “led to the unprecedented shutdown of a major platform for communications relied on by millions of people in the US,” said Michael Bien, lead counsel for the alliance and other plaintiffs.

“The courts did the right thing by preventing the ban from going into effect, but the whole episode creating enormous disruption and uncertainty never should have happened in the first place,” Bien said.

The Biden order authorises the commerce department to vet companies and their services, a senior official said. Two separate reports by the commerce secretary on recommendations for actions and additional executive and legislative measures must be completed in 120 and 180 days, respectively.

TikTok, which has been downloaded 100-million times in the US, got caught up in Trump’s crackdown on Chinese technology companies and their influence in the US. The administration argued that Americans’ private data gathered through the app could be handed over to the authoritarian regime in China, something TikTok has said it would never do. In August 2020, Trump ordered that the app, which lets users share video clips and is popular with young people, be sold to a US firm or face a ban in the US. The forced sale got held up over differences about what constitutes US ownership and who would control TikTok’s valuable algorithm.

Several lawsuits were filed against the ban, including one from US social media influencers, who charged that the ban would violate their right to free speech. A federal judge ruled in 2020 in the influencers’ favour. A second federal judge later fully blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to ban TikTok in the US, finding that Trump overstepped his authority in using emergency economic powers to put the popular app out of business.