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President Biden on Wednesday rescinded a Trump-era executive order that sought to ban popular apps TikTok and WeChat and replaced it with one calling for a broader review of a number of foreign-controlled apps that could pose a security risk to Americans and their WeChat. data.
In a call with reporters Wednesday, administration officials said the Trump-era order had not been implemented “properly” and that the new guidance would establish “clear and understandable criteria” for assessing the national security risks posed by connected software applications to foreign governments, particularly China.
The order will address a number of applications and reinforce recent actions the Biden administration has taken to limit the growing influence of Chinese tech companies. It is the first significant step Biden has taken to meet the challenge left to him by President Donald J. Trump, whose administration has struggled to ban TikTok and force its Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app. Legal appeals were immediately followed up and the application is still available as the battle in the courts subsided.
On Wednesday, administration officials said that a review of TikTok by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the body that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments in American companies, remains ongoing and separate from the matter.
Biden’s order “will direct the Secretary of Commerce to use a standards-based decision framework and rigorous evidence-based analysis to assess and address risks” posed by foreign-run applications, according to a memo distributed by the Commerce Department and obtained by The New York Times. “As appropriate, the Secretary will determine appropriate actions based on a thorough review of the risks posed by software applications related to the foreign adversary.”
TikTok declined to comment on Wednesday morning.
Mr. Biden’s order was intended to expand the scope of a 2019 order issued by the Trump administration, which prohibits US telecom companies from installing foreign-made equipment that could pose a threat to national security. The order did not mention specific companies, nor the one that Biden issued on Wednesday. The new guidance also does not mention specific retaliatory measures that can be taken if a request is found to be a national security threat.
On Wednesday, administration officials will not go into details about the future availability of TikTok to US users or determine whether the US government will seek to force ByteDance to transfer US user data to a US-based company. Amid a number of successful legal challenges launched by ByteDance, a deal to transfer data to Oracle fell through this year shortly after Biden took office.
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