Trump’s WeChat, TikTok bans will go through, White House aide says
- Apps will be prohibited ‘even if there’s a change in administration’, national security adviser Robert O’Brien says
- Also under the microscope are other Chinese companies that have popular apps in the US ‘that are taking a lot of data from the American people’
Moves by the Trump administration to restrict the Chinese-owned social-media platforms in the United States for what it said were national security reasons have been put on hold as a result of court injunctions. WeChat and TikTok users have argued that the bans were motivated by election year politics rather than genuine security concerns.
“We’re now looking – those court cases are ongoing, so the federal government will wait and see what our courts tell us we can or can’t do with respect to those bans,” O’Brien said at an event in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
“I think ultimately the president’s authority with those bans on those apps will be enforced. And I think even if there’s a change in administration, those bans will take place.”
06:02
Global expansion of TikTok and other Chinese tech companies is likely, only not in the West