The United States Department of Commerce announced that in 48 hours, TikTok and WeChat will be banned from American app stores, meaning that people in the US will no longer be able to download the applications through any platform, unless President Donald J. Trump approves a last-minute deal. While WeChat's technical transactions will be banned effective Sunday, September 20th, 2020, TikTok will function normally until November 12th, 2020 though users cannot download new updates, unless a planned partnership between Oracle and TikTok owner Bytedance is agreed upon and approved by the Trump administration. The Trump administration claims that the companies threaten national security, and could provide user data to the Chinese government, a claim that both China and the companies deny.

American companies will not be banned from doing business with WeChat outside of the United States. Apple, Google, and other American companies are still allowed to offer the download of TikTok and WeChat anywhere outside of the US. People who use the two apps in the US will not be penalized nor fined. With an estimated 19 million daily WeChat users in the US, some Americans may find workarounds to download the app, including travelling outside the country or using a virtual private networks.

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