Biden revokes ban on TikTok and WeChat: What you need to know

Picture Courtesy: Republic World

• On Thursday, US President Joe Biden revoked the series of executive orders that were issued by former President Donald Trump targeting certain apps like TikTok and WeChat.

• He replaced the previous orders with a set of new ones addressing apps linked to foreign countries, including China.

• The major focus of these executive orders is to protect the personal data of US users and identify the national security risks associated with these apps.

• The executive orders share the same concerns as the previous one but rather than targeting a set of apps it generalizes the foreign apps.

• This will not affect the negotiations TikTok has been involved in finalizing a US-based owner. These negotiations have been going on for months now and big names like Microsoft popped up during the talks.

• The memo given out by the Commerce Department said, "The Biden Administration is committed to promoting an open, interoperable, reliable and secure Internet, protecting human rights online and offline, and supporting a vibrant, global digital economy”.