US to ban TikTok and WeChat downloads from September 20

The Trump administration has ordered a ban on China's TikTok and WeChat operations from Sunday citing national security concerns.

Also Read: Trump not happy with Oracle having minority shares in TikTok

"The Chinese Communist Party has demonstrated the means and motives to use these apps to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and the economy of the US," Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement.

The US plan involves barring citizens from downloading the Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok from September 20.

“At the President’s direction, 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 US laws and regulations,” Commerce department statement added.

Meanwhile, TikTok slammed the US move, saying: "We disagree with the decision from the Commerce Department," while adding that it was "disappointed" with the ban. 

TikTok's parent company ByteDance has been in talks with Oracle and others to create a new company aiming to address the US administration's national security concerns. 

US President Donald Trump had said earlier that he is "not prepared to sign off on anything", asserting,"it has to be 100 per cent as far as national security is concerned."

Microsoft had earlier expressed interest in buying TikTok's international operations, but Oracle has become the frontrunner for a deal with TikTok. However,  media outlets said ByteDance would keep a majority stake in the company and Oracle a minority stake.

Trump hit back on that saying: "We don't like that. Conceptually, I can tell you I don't like that."