In early September, The Trump administration announced that it would be banning the Chinese-owned mobile apps TikTok and WeChat from US app stores. This was an escalated move in the US’ tech clash with China.
The restrictions were scheduled to go into effect on TikTok within the first weeks of November unless the company could appeal to the administration’s concerns that the app poses a threat to US national security.
TikTok (owned by China’s ByteDance) had been in talks with US tech giants, Oracle, about a deal that could hand over an extent of the control to the American software makers.
Now that Trump lost, what’s next?
This issue has certainly changed since Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. As he prepares to take over the White House in January, TikTok will now be wondering what his approach to Chinese owned businesses working in the US will be. Again, the potential deal between ByteDance and Oracle is still rumoured to go on as planned, despite no real approval by the Chinese government.
Biden has expressed some sort of concern regarding TikTok in the past, saying that a Chinese company owns a communication based app used by a large amount of young people is indeed a “matter of genuine concern“.
However, no official stance has yet to be declared. Nontheless, it doesn’t appear that the ban will come into effect anytime soon, especially with the Trump administration moving out of power. However, Biden’s approach to foreign affairs might still be provide difficulties for the Chinese tech giants.
Art by: Yuu Uchida
11th November 2020
Abstract Column 