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New York, September 18, 2020. And the blade is finally down. Donald Trump announced that WeChat and TikTok will be removed from US app stores on Sunday.. In other words, it will no longer be possible to download or update these programs from the official sites of Google, Apple and other providers. For the two Chinese-owned software programs used by more than 100 million people in the United States, this is a tremendous blow.
The prohibitions
In the case of WeChat, a kind of WhatsApp with more functions, the restrictions will be even more strict: Money transfers and payment transactions will be prohibited. As if that were not enough, any company that operates in the US will be prevented from offering hosting services (renting the space necessary to publish on the web), peering (interconnection between networks of different providers), content distribution and transit of internet to WeChat. It will also be illegal to use parts of the code of the Chinese messaging application in software distributed in the US To understand us, as of Sunday it will be impossible to use WeChat. The same bans will go into effect for TikTok starting November 12.. A delay of three weeks justified by the fact that the social network could pass into the hands of the American company Oracle. The president has made it clear that if security concerns are resolved, the ban will be lifted. Until November 12, it will not be possible to update TikTok, but it will be possible to use it.
And reasons
It was clear to everyone that sooner or later the redde rationem would arrive. On August 6, the president signed an executive order accusing the two popular Chinese apps of collecting data from American users to make it available in Beijing. TikTok and WeChat have always denied any malicious use of their software. But Commerce Secretary Wilbur RossHe does not believe it: “These applications – he explained when announcing the bans – collect data about your movements, about what you see in streaming, about what your preferences are, what are you talking about. Every part of your habits will be available to viewers in China. This is what we are trying to block “
The wrath of Silicon Valley
However, Chinese apps, according to the New York Times, could find unexpected allies. In recent months, Google, Apple and top app store officials have hinted that they could sue the Trump administration for violating the first amendment (the one that guarantees free speech) in the event of bans like the ones that start Sunday. . The web giants would prefer a deeper political process before proceeding with draconian rules.
What happens in italy
For Italian users using these two popular social networks, almost nothing will happen. From Sunday it will be impossible to chat with WeChat contacts who live in the US., while for TikTok everything will continue as now. If the social network has not changed hands on November 12, US profiles will stop producing content and will no longer be able to respond to sent messages (which will not even be read). Last January, our guarantor for privacy, together with other members of the EU Parliament, had asked the European Committee for the Protection of Personal Data to activate a specific working group to analyze any threats from Chinese software. The investigation is ongoing.
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