TikTok and WeChat: US to ban app downloads within 48 hours

TikTok and WeChat will be banned from US app stores starting Sunday, unless President Donald Trump agrees to a last-minute deal.

The Commerce Department said it would prohibit people in the United States from downloading the messaging and video-sharing apps through any app store on any platform.

The Trump administration says that companies threaten national security and could pass user data to China.

But China and both companies deny it.

WeChat will effectively shut down in the US on Sunday, but people will still be able to use TikTok normally until November 12, when it could also be banned entirely.

If President Trump agrees and approves a planned partnership between Oracle and TikTok owner ByteDance, the app would not be banned.

It is not yet clear whether Trump will approve the deal, but he is expected to review it before Sunday’s deadline.

The department acknowledged that the threats posed by WeChat and TikTok were not identical, but said that each collected “vast amounts of user data, including network activity, location data, and browsing and search histories.”

While WeChat closes on Sunday, TikTok users will still be able to use its app almost normally, though they won’t be able to download new updates.

“The president has provided until November 12 for the national security concerns raised by TikTok to be resolved,” the commerce department said.

The Trump administration has repeatedly said that the apps are a threat because of their data collection.

Friday’s statement from the commerce department said the ruling Chinese Communist Party “has demonstrated the means and motives to use these apps to threaten the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States.”

ByteDance has denied having user data in China, saying it is stored in the US and Singapore. Tencent, which owns WeChat, has said that messages on its app are private.

While TikTok has millions of users in the US, it is unclear how many of WeChat’s 1 billion users are based outside of China, although that is likely to be a significant number.

The Delhi government said that the applications were “detrimental to the sovereignty and integrity of India, the defense of India, state security and public order.”