August 11, 2020

TikTok WeChat and Trade War – what does this all mean?

On Thursday 6th August, Donald Trump signed 2 executive orders directed at 2 of the largest Chinese apps. TikTok and WeChat. TikTok has over 100 million users in the USA, while WeChat is estimated to have roughly 1.5 million daily US users. These executive orders are attempting to ban these two apps under their current format by Sunday 20th September. This short read looks at why this is occurring as well as the differing methods that these orders could be carried out.

TikTok is a social media success story. After passing 2 billion worldwide downloads in April this year, TikTok is one of the biggest players in the social media sphere. However, all is not perfect. In June this year India banned the use of TikTok after claiming that the Chinese made apps are a danger to the country. This came after border tensions between the worlds most populated two countries. This was a massive blow to TikTok as India is its largest foreign market with an estimated 120 million users. Claims from the Indian government is that TikTok are secretly obtaining information from people’s phones after they download the app and passing it onto the Chinese government. TikTok fervently denies these claims, telling US lawmakers in late 2019 that they are not influenced by any foreign government. TikTok itself does not operate in China but is owned by Chinese company ByteDance which is where all the concerns are stemming from. According to the National Intelligence Law Chinese companies are mandated to assist intelligence agents in their work within and outside of China, meaning that if China asked ByteDance to hand over data from TikTok they are legally obliged to do so.

WeChat on the other hand is slightly different. The numbers of users of WeChat outside of China is orders of magnitude less than the numbers who use TikTok. WeChat is mainly used by Chinese immigrants worldwide to keep in contact with their loved ones in China as Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat are all censored there. Banning WeChat is almost the equivalent of cutting of people from their acquaintances in China, going down a very similar censorship path to the Chinese regime. WeChat is owned by Tencent, a company worth over $69 billion based in Shenzhen, meaning they also have to adhere to the National Intelligence Law.

A major problem with the ban on WeChat is how essential its services are to millions of people. From business using it to supply PPE for the pandemic to people organising trump rallies in America, WeChat is truly embedded in many Chinese Americans lives. Pulling the plug on it fairly suddenly seems like an overreaction. However, there are severe privacy and security concerns about both platforms, with both being known to censor information that would displease the communist party as well as the National Intelligence law this may be too much for the current US administration to handle.

Donald Trump’s executive orders stated that after 45 days from 6th August the US will prohibit any transaction by any person with TikTok or WeChat. However, there is some ambiguity as to how this will occur. The options range from making Apple and Google remove them from their respective app stores, to ordering all ISPs in the country to block the app. There is a range of options, however, will they even work. Firstly, telling Apple and Google from their respective app stores may reduce download rates and updates, yet won’t stop the 100 million Americans currently using the app. Furthermore, this move will likely be fiercely fought by Apple and Google. Also removing an app from the app store will not prevent people who want to download it from downloading it. Jailbreaking one’s phone allows apps to be installed from different places thereby circumventing the ban.

If the order goes down the route of ordering ISPs to block access, this would be an unprecedented step in American internet history. This act would be similar to the approach India has taken and would likely prevent the majority of access to TikTok and WeChat fixing the problems stated by Mr Trump. However, this all may be a ploy to encourage ByteDance to sell TikTok to a US company – Microsoft (talks are ongoing) – which would mitigate the problem of TikTok in a regular non imposing fashion. WeChat on the other hand is unlikely to be sold, meaning the probability of the orders coming into effect are high, making the future for many Chinese Americans and their families a bit more uncertain.

In conclusion, it is clear that Washington is taking firm action against any potential security threat posed by these apps. The issue with the app, having already banned from US Army issued smartphones, isn’t going away. However, the vagueness of the executive order suggests its aim could be scaremongering, in which case if the sale of TikTok goes ahead, means that their strategy would have worked. With the situation changing regularly this is something to keep a keen eye out for in the near future…

Sources: bbc.co.uk, guardian.com, businessinsider.com, cnn.com, wired.com, ft.com, whitehouse.gov, cnet.com, independent.co.uk, theverge.com. Accessed [11/08/2020]

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