US May Ban Tiktok, WeChat On Sept 20

The US Commerce Department on Friday issued an order that will ban people in the country from downloading the popular video-sharing app TikTok and Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat, from app stores on Sunday, September 20.

The move will come into effect from Sunday (September 20), under the two executive orders President Donald Trump had issued over a month ago.

However as TikTok's Chinese parent company, Bytedance, races to clinch an agreement over the fate of its US operations, commerce officials said that ban on new US downloads of Tiktok could still be rescinded by President Donald Trump before it takes effect on Sunday.

Technical transactions for TikTok will not be barred however until November 12, giving the company to see if ByteDance can reach a deal of its US operations.

"The basic TikTok will stay intact until Nov 12," said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

"We have taken significant action to combat China's malicious collection of American citizens' personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of U.S. laws and regulations," he added.