Commerce Department Announces a TikTok Ban

The United States Commerce Department announced Friday that new downloads of TikTok and WeChat would not be allowed beginning Sunday, September 20. As the Commerce Department announces a TikTok ban for the United States, TikTok’s parent company Bytedance is still searching for a U.S. operator to continue their operations. It is rumored that both Oracle and Wal-Mart have been in contact with Bytedance to operate the app.

TikTok and WeChat, all-purpose messaging apps, will both be removed from the Apple app store and Google Play store. Existing users will still be able to have and use the app on their devices. They will however not be able to update the app which would impact its functionality as phone operating systems get more sophisticated. As of now, TikTok has over 100 million users in the United States and more than 700 million around the world.

The Trump administration has given a date of November 12 for the parties to reach an agreement on the app, or there will be a full ban implemented.

“In our proposal to the US Administration, we’ve already committed to unprecedented levels of additional transparency and accountability well beyond what other apps are willing to do, including third-party audits, verification of code security, and US government oversight of US data security. Further, an American technology provider would be responsible for maintaining and operating the TikTok network in the US, which would include all services and data serving US consumers,” a spokesperson from TikTok said.

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Jeffrey Cooperstein

Jeffrey is a graduate from the University of North Texas and joined the Empower Brokerage marketing team in 2020. He is the social media manager for empower brokerage, in addition to writing blogs and doing various campaigns. LinkedIn profile