TikTok takes legal action against the ban
On September 27, ET, TikTok filed a request with the Federal Court in Washington, D.C. seeking to suspend the ban of Trump administration deciding to remove the APP from the U.S.app store which would have gone into effect on September 27.
WeChat, owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent, which also faces the threat of an injunction, has recently obtained an injunction that is in favor of WeChat in a U.S. court, allowing it to temporarily avoid being removed from U.S. app stores.
The U.S. Department of Commerce had announced implementation details for President Trump’s executive order on September 18, stating that it would ban TikTok from downloading and updating in the U.S. app stores from September 20. It also said it would ban U.S. Internet service providers from providing service for TikTok as of November 12 if TikTok did not address national security concerns.
TikTok’s Downloads Rises
According to data disclosed to TechWeb by mobile data and analytics company App Annie, it shows that TikTok added 2.088 million new downloads in the U.S. over the past 12 days from September 6 to September 17, with at least 150,000 new downloads every day.
From August 15 to September 12, TikTok had 52.1 million, 52.2 million, 52.4 million, 53.5 million, and 53.5 million weekly active users respectively in the U.S. for those five weeks.
WeChat, on the other hand, is also growing steadily. App Annie data shows that from September 6 to September 17, a 12-day period, WeChat added 45,500 downloads in the U.S. From January to August this year, WeChat’s monthly active users in the U.S. were 3.6 million, 3.7 million, 3.6 million, 3.7 million, 3.5 million, 3.2 million, 3.3 million, 3.3 million, respectively.
On September 18, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that TikTok would be banned from downloading and updating on the app stores within the U.S. territory as of September 20, and would be banned from providing services in the U.S. as of November 12.
In response, TikTok announced a statement saying that we oppose this decision and are deeply disappointed. The U.S. government’s previous executive orders were issued without due process and threatened to deprive the American people and small businesses of an important platform for voice and survival. For this reason, TikTok will continue to pursue litigation to protect the rights of our users, creators, partners, and companies.
Is TikTok Safe Now?
IS TIKTOK SAFE? Will Tiktok’s Tripartite Agreement with Oracle, Walmart finally take effect? Will the Chinese government ratify the agreement? It seems that we’ll have to wait.
