Biden Revokes Trump-era Executive Orders That Sought To Ban TikTok, WeChat And Other Chinese Applications

U.S President Joe Biden has revoked Trump-era executive orders that attempted to ban TikTok, WeChat, and eight other communications and financial technology software applications.

A new executive order directs the Commerce Department to undertake what it described as "criteria-based decision framework and rigorous, evidence-based analysis to identify national security risks" associated with software applications owned or controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction of a foreign adversary, including the People’s Republic of China.

The department also will make recommendations on how to further protect Americans’ genetic and personal health information, and will address the risks of certain software apps connected to China or other adversaries.

In a court filing, Department of Justice had requested a judge to postpone a legal dispute over the proposed ban of TikTok pending a broader review of the national security threats posed by Chinese technology companies.

A Federal district judge in US had temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's ban of Chinese short-video sharing platform TikTok in the United States (US).The move came as a major reprieve for Chinese technology behemoth ByteDance which owns TikTok, as without the judgement, it would have been banned in the US and removed from the US app marketplaces operated by Apple Inc and Google on the iOS and Android platforms.