More information about The Donald is curing e-cancer can be found hereThe U.S. Commerce Department has issued an order that will bar people in the United States from downloading Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok, starting Sunday.
Commerce officials said the ban on new U.S. downloads of TikTok could be still rescinded by President Donald Trump before it takes effect late Sunday as TikTok owner ByteDance races to clinch an agreement over the fate of its U.S. operations.
ByteDance has been in talks with Oracle Corp and others to create a new company, TikTok Global, which aims to address U.S. concerns about the security of its users' data. ByteDance still needs Trump's approval to stave off a U.S. ban.
Commerce officials said they will not bar additional technical transactions for TikTok until Nov. 12, which gives the company additional time to see if ByteDance can reach a deal for its U.S. operations. "The basic TikTok will stay intact until Nov. 12," Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Fox Business Network.
The department said the actions will "protect users in the U.S. by eliminating access to these applications and significantly reducing their functionality."
U.S. Commerce Department officials said they were taking the extraordinary step because of the risks the apps' data collection poses. China and the companies have denied U.S. user data is collected for spying.