President Joe Biden announced that he is revoking former President Donald Trump’s executive order banning popular apps such as TikTok and WeChat.
However, this does not mean that the apps and their parent companies are done being investigated for their alleged involvement in stealing data.
Instead of banning the apps, President Biden has put in place a new order that calls for a broader review of several foreign-controlled applications that could be stealing and taking advantage of American’s personal data.
Administration officials shared on a call with reporters on Wednesday that the Trump-era order was not carried out in the "soundest of fashions," according to the New York Times. However, President Biden’s new order will instead work to establish "clear, intelligible criteria" to evaluate national security risks posed by software applications connected to foreign governments, particularly China.
This new order will now do more than just banning two apps, as the Biden administration is looking to curb the growing influence of Chinese technology companies. President Trump’s order attempted to ban the app or force the Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app, but there has been little success in getting the company to do so.
The new order comes just a day after the Senate passed a bipartisan bill to combat China’s growing economic influence by investing $200 billion into U.S.-based technology, science, and research.
The bill was a rare showing of bipartisanship in the senate as 19 Republican senators voted in favor and only one Democrat, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, voted against it. The final vote was 68-32.
The bill also includes investing $10 billion over five years to the Department of Commerce to create regional tech hub programs, a third of which will be located in rural areas.
Currently, TikTok is still available as the issue has been wrapped up in a legal battle and has been under review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States; this is the body that reviews national security implications of foreign investments in U.S. companies. The review is continuing as of now and is separate from President Biden’s order.
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