On Sunday, the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store were supposed to remove the Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat, yet they remain on the app

TikTok And WeChat Ban Explained: And How They Dodged It

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2020-09-24 13:02:16

On Sunday, the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store were supposed to remove the Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat, yet they remain on the app stores. The Trump administration stated that these apps posed security threats to American users. The Commerce Department ordered that these apps were removed from the apps stores and prohibited to be downloaded as of Sunday. On Saturday, WeChat, in particular, saw a spike in downloads with an 800 percent week-over-week increase, according to The Verge. However, what happened on Sunday was that Trump let them be safe from the US ban, but only temporarily. President Trump said he had given a deal between TikTok, Oracle and Walmart allowing a one-week delay from the ban. WeChat was saved by a judge in California who had blocked the ban.

First, let’s talk about TikTok. Back in August, President Trump said that TikTok had two options: they would either be bought by a US company by September 15th or be banned from the US. Now, the company ByteDance which owns TikTok was given the deadline to come up with a deal that was good enough to keep their app running in the US. On Sunday, the companies Oracle and Walmart announced that they will buy a 20 percent stake in TikTok. ByteDance will continue to own the majority.