US President Joe Biden Suspends Move to Ban TikTok and WeChat

US President Joe Biden has suspended legal proceedings against TikTok and WeChat, a move which could have ensured the ban of both apps in United States.

Former president, Donald Trump had sought to ban both apps with claims they were a threat to national security.

Both companies also had not taken the threat to ban them lightly as they had filed legal action against the proposed ban.

The Biden administration has however now asked for an”abeyance” – or suspension – of proceedings while it revisits whether the apps pose a threat.

The delay means both apps can continue to operate in the US while new staff at government agencies “become familiar with the issues in this case”, the legal documents state.

Mr. Trump had claimed that the spread in the US of mobile apps developed and owned by Chinese firms threatened “the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States”.

Messaging app WeChat says the US only accounts for 2% of its revenue, while it has more than one billion users worldwide.

Video-sharing app TikTok has about 800 million users worldwide, of which 100 million are in the US.

The app’s owner, ByteDance, has been in talks with software company Oracle and supermarket giant Walmart to finalise a deal that would see TikTok’s US assets shifted into a new entity, to avoid a ban in the country.

However, reports say the deal could be called off if the Biden administration takes a strategy towards Chinese apps.