Against the backdrop of a standoff between China and the United States, the world's leading power announced on Friday that downloads of TikTok and WeChat applications would be blocked on American territory from Sunday, September 20.
The United States announced Friday the ban, from Sunday, of downloading TikTok and WeChat applications, further escalation in the standoff with China over the fate of these two applications.
Washington, however, leaves a door open for TikTok, an application very popular with young people to produce short videos, before completely banning him from operating on its soil.
Security issues highlighted by the administration
"The president leaves until November 12 to resolve the national security problems posed by TikTok. The bans could be lifted if necessary," the Commerce Department said in a statement.
This announcement is made as negotiations with the Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its activities on American soil to an American group are stalling.
"The Chinese Communist Party has shown that it has the means and the intention to use these applications to threaten national security, foreign policy and the economy of the United States," the US ministry said in its statement.
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Towards a private update application
"Regarding TikTok, the only real change as of Sunday night will be that we will not have access to application improvements, updates, or maintenance," detailed Minister of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Fox Business.
Very quickly, users will therefore have to deal with an app with degraded service, which could make it much less attractive.
As of now, this short video app is extremely popular among teens with around 100 million users in the US and up to one billion worldwide.
A decision denounced by TikTok
For its part, TikTok denounced this decision: "We do not agree with the decision of the Commerce Department and are disappointed that it is blocking downloads of new applications from Sunday and prohibiting the use of the application. TikTok in the United States from November 12, "said a spokesperson.
"In our proposal to the US administration, we have already committed to unprecedented levels of additional transparency and accountability, far beyond what other apps are willing to do," she also said. , citing the possibility of third-party audits, "code security verification and US government oversight of data security in the United States."