Update: Trump decides to postpone the blocking of TikTok downloads until September 27th. (20 September 2020)
The President of the United States of America has officially declared that from September 20, Americans will no longer be able to download the WeChat messaging application as well as TikTok.
Nobody will be able to download them in the US anymore, at least from what we read on Reuters.
In addition, the two companies behind the applications are no longer allowed to directly use hosting services, CDNs, network transits, peering services, or even code and other services from the USA. For TikTok, this rule will take effect from November 12, while in the case of WeChat, this should be the case from September 20.
In short, with these restrictions, these applications in the USA are likely to be very difficult or even impossible to use.
Officials said the order from the Commerce Department is to prevent stores like Apple’s AppStore and Google’s PlayStore (and others where the app is provided) from letting American users download the app.
Almost three weeks ago, the apps were threatened with a total ban. Lately, there has been a lot of discussion about a possible sale of TikTok to a US company. As a service provider, Oracle is supposed to save TikTok. It remains to be seen whether this idea will satisfy the US government.
