US moves to ban TikTok and WeChat on September 20

As expected, the US government has announced measures against popular Chinese apps. In a further escalation of the tech war between the US and China, the Trump Administration signed an executive order that aims to purge untrusted Chinese apps from US networks. The primary focus is TikTok, a very popular video sharing app for teens and young adults, as well as WeChat, a Chinese version of WhatsApp.

The ban will be effective in 45 days. Furthermore, starting on September 20, US companies will no longer be allowed to do transactions with Tencent and ByteDance, the parent companies of WeChat and TikTok, respectively.

Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat are seen as significant threats due to worries about data-sharing with the Chinese government. TikTok has already been banned in India over similar concerns and Australia was considering it too.

Reuters reports this basically gives Microsoft and ByteDance 45 days to reach a deal about an acquisition of TikTok.

TikTok has come under fire from U.S. lawmakers over national security concerns surrounding data collection as distrust between Washington and Beijing grows. Reuters on Sunday reported that Trump has given Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) 45 days to complete the purchase of TikTok’s U.S. operations.

The ban on U.S. transactions with Tencent, one of the world’s biggest internet companies, portends further fracturing of the global internet and severing of long-standing ties between the tech industries in the United States and China.

With shots being fired by the US, it will be interesting to see how Beijing responds. Some believe Apple is a particularly vulnerable target.