The US government is going to kick off both the most controversial applications their, WeChat and TikTok on this Sunday. Though, the government also holds the right to reverse the ban once TikTok finalizes a deal with any US-based companies to satisfy the national security concerns.
As per the Friday statement by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross the US will restrict all the cash transfers with WeChat along with its parent company Tencent Holdings Ltd. But for now “distribution, maintenance and updates of WeChat or TikTok through app stores in the U.S” will be prohibited from 20th September.
Ross said that the immediate treatment for both the applications will be different. “Americans will still be able to use WeChat for payments in China. WeChat U.S. for all practical purposes will be shut down,” – Ross to Fox Business. “For TikTok, it’s just upgrades, maintenance and things like that that will be shut down at this stage, the real shut down would come after Nov. 12 in the event there is not another transaction,”
Though the app store related services will be taken down this Sunday, in the case of TikTok, the US companies can provide services until 12th November. This will give the video-making platform a little bit more time to finalize any deal, most probably with Oracle. A person familiar with this matter said, in case any deal between TikTok, Oracle, and the Trump administration permanently comes in existence before 20th September, the application will not be removed from the app stores.
Both Google and Apple are fully agreed to obey the instructions of the US government. If they need to remove WeChat along with TikTok, the Americans, having WeChat preinstalled will not get further updates, no matter whether they stand in the US or in China, but can use the services. Other than that, new users won’t be able to download the app.
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