Beginning this Sunday, you may not be able to fully access your TikTok and WeChat accounts.
CNBC reports the Commerce Department is restricting any moves to distribute or maintain the two social media sites on the App Store and Google Play.
According to CNN, that means if you already have an account, you’ll be able to use it. You just won’t be able to access any updates.
However, beginning on Sunday, it will be illegal to host or transfer internet traffic associated with We Chat. That same restriction will apply to TikTok beginning November 12.
“At the President’s direction, we have taken significant action to combat China’s malicious collection of American citizens’ personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of U.S. laws and regulations,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement.
Meanwhile, 122 Chinese American organizations from 35 state have endorsed a letter from United Chinese Americans asking President Trump to rescind his executive order on We Chat and TikTok.
“Mr. President, the United States has long stood for an open and free Internet. These Executive Orders, coupled with the Clean Network initiative your Administration has taken targeting China, would effectively create two separate and decoupled internets, which will only serve to restrict the free flow of information to and from China, and reverse the long-held national policy of an open and free Internet held by all previous administrations,” the letter stated.
On August 6, President Trump said he would give TikTok and WeChat 45 days to sell its US business to a US company or face a ban. It’s not clear at this time whether Trump will approve a deal for Oracle to take a minority stake in TikTok, reported CNBC.
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