

"The basic TikTok will stay intact until November 12," Mr Ross says. The 100 million existing Tiktok users in the US will see little change until mid November when a ban on some technical transactions will kick in, affecting functionality.

Go deeper: Get the answers to some of the difficult questions being raised about WeChat's place within Australia's democracy. "WeChat was designed to serve international users outside of mainland China and has always incorporated the highest standards of user privacy and data security." Tencent, which owns WeChat, said the restrictions were "unfortunate" but it would continue talking with the Government and other stakeholders in the US to find a long-term solution. "It may still be usable but it is not going to be as functional as it was." "What immediately is going to happen is users are going to experience a lag or lack of functionality," an official said. The order bars data hosting within the United States for WeChat, content delivery services and networks that can increase functionality and internet transit or peering services. US officials believe over time people will find other apps to use out of frustration due to a lack of updates. The app is popular among Chinese students, ex-pats and Americans who have personal and business relationships in China. WeChat's 19 million daily active US users will notice the app beginning to degrade from Sunday. This combination results in the use of WeChat and TikTok creating unacceptable risks to our national security." What does it mean for WeChat users in the US? "Each is an active participant in China's civil-military fusion and is subject to mandatory cooperation with the intelligence services of the CCP. The data collected includes network activity, location data and browsing and search histories. "While the threats posed by WeChat and TikTok are not identical, they are similar." US Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross shed further light on Friday of the US's concerns.Ī statement from Mr Ross says both apps collect "vast swaths of data from users". President Donald Trump signed the executive orders to clamp down on the apps in August. Mr Trump previously claimed TikTok could be used in disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that he held concerns about how WeChat collected people's personal data. What's the problem?Īnalysts say the apps harvest large amounts of data and warn the companies may be forced to share that information with the Chinese Government. The bans mean both TikTok and WeChat and the apps' updates will no longer be distributed in US app stores as of Sunday. We've answered five quick questions about what the bans means to users. The country's Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross says the bans are to "safeguard the national security of the United States". When US President Donald Trump signed executive orders to ban "transactions" with the Chinese owners of the apps in August, he declared TikTok a "national emergency". So if you can’t receive payments and can’t promote your business then financially speaking you are pretty screwed.Americans will be blocked from downloading Chinese super-app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok due to concerns the platforms pose a national security risk. WeChat is also a big platform for companies to reach out to potential customers so again McDonald’s and Starbucks may not be able to advertise or promote their businesses but a Chinese rival could. So American businesses like McDonald’s and Starbucks might not be able to take Wechat payments anymore which would be very inconvenient for the customers so they might go to a Chinese equivalent of McDonald’s or Starbucks and get their burgers and coffee. Apparently neither cash nor credit cards are popular in China at the moment and everything is smartphone payments now. Here is a simple explanation for the situation from one of our commenter “Ricky Spanish”įor example, WeChat handles payments via smartphones so you can buy a burger or a coffee using your phone.

Some may be wondering how the WeChat ban will affect American business in China. However, American companies in China have just WeChat as a viable option. have multiple options in terms of payment. If you take away WeChat, you will technically be “killing” many American businesses in China. Presently, WeChat is one of the few viable financial platforms between the U.S. WeChat ban has some implication on American businesses
