Trump Signs Executive Orders to Ban US Transactions With Chinese Companies ByteDance and Tencent

[TheColtr]

sometimes I am really impressed by how much power the president has on his own in the US. Almost feels like its a half dictatorship like he can veto things, just decide stuff like this on his own. Crazy

And what about state side companies that collect personal data to share and sell them? like your very own mobile phone providers.

I agree, presidents in general shouldn’t have as much power as they have. Blame congress for attaching all the agencies to the executive branch instead of their own. Really since the mid 90’s executive orders are becoming more used. Obama used them a lot and trump is following in his footsteps.

executive orders got even more powerful recently the Supreme Court ruled that trump couldn’t end DACA (which was an executive order) meaning that trump era executive orders may not even be able to be repealed until years after he is out of office. The Supreme Court just gave more power to executive orders.

 

[hagar]

Excellent, hopefully the ban will inspire other countries and areas to consider similar action. It's time that China is reminded that they can't trample the rest of the world without penalty.

Hopefully this action will inspire the EU to block American apps that spy on us and invade our privacy. Looking at you FB. We don’t need no American spyware.

 

[TheColtr]

Could you link where Trump said that or is it your personal opinion ?

yeah there’s been no ban on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, or any other platform that has anti-trump biases. It seems he is specifically targeting Chinese based and owned apps, services, and equipment.

 

[Dwalls90]

So how is he causing more deaths? Through which lies?

There is a reason US cases and deaths are the worst in the world. He's denied the severity of the virus from day 1. So either he's incredibly incompetent as a leader in that he made a horrifically wrong series of judgement calls (and still continues to do so, 6 months later), or was aware of the severity but lied to the public about it.

All the President’s Lies About the Coronavirus

An unfinished compendium of Trump’s overwhelming dishonesty during a national emergency

www.theatlantic.com

The TikTok mobile application has been reverse engineered and has found to contain functionality that is well beyond the scope of a social networking application. One of such pieces of functionality is the ability of the app download ZIP archives from a given IP and the ability for it to execute binaries contained within those ZIP archives. The app also used proprietary code obfuscation techniques to prevent reverse engineers from seeing particular parts of the app's functionality. The app reserves the right to divulge any data recorded by its app with Chinese authorities as well. Let the USA worry about the USA's privacy complaints without having other countries' companies do the same to US citizens.

And Facebook was confirmed to have manipulated in the 2016 election by foreign influences, as well as data harvesting without a user's consent. What were their consequences? None. Were they banned? No. Was their an executive order issued against them? No.

You seem to be okay with a US company doing the same thing to your personal data, but because in this case it's a foreign company, it's unacceptable? Don't get me wrong, I don't want a foreign entity having my data, and we seem to agree that China is a problem, but we should note the difference between Facebook and Tik Tok is not their privacy practices or how they handle data, but rather the country in which they are headquartered. You're living under a rock if you don't think Facebook provides data to the US government. And you're okay with that?

No I am not, but thanks for putting words in my mouth. Just out of curiosity, how many academic journals have you read in relation to virology as a discipline and COVID-19 as a specific? I can hazard a guess and say it is probably 0. I on the other hand, have read a handful of academic papers on these topics and I can assure you that children are in effect unaffected by COVID.

I actually got my facts from academic journals, but thanks for thinking I get them from Trump. Except there is no genuine concern for brain damage in children. They have observed several cases of brain-related symptoms in patients who either at the time or later were confirmed to have COVID. It is very much still in doubt and there is no data suggesting this is any more prevalent in kids than it is in adults.

Your assumptions are wrong. Please post the peer reviewed papers/journals citing that children are "virtually immune" as well as your other statistics. Otherwise, your statistics will be disregarded.

 

[nnoble]

Since you're from outside the U.S., it's completely understandable that you wouldn't be knowledgeable about the powers that our constitution affords the U.S. President (i.e. the Executive branch of our government).

Truly the most inane statement I’ve read for a very long time.

You’re not a Martian, how can you know anything about Mars! 😀.
you’re not a fish, how can you know anything about marine life. 😂

 

[mzeb]

Well that’s because a lot of these people are working at troll farms. Real people, even those who oppose Trump, have been wanting this for years and this is really the only great thing he’s done in what will be his only term in presidency.

And herein you are wrong. The vast majority want to have the freedom to choose. Polling shows that very few folks are supportive of the trade war with China and Wall Street recoils every time restrictions on China are put in place. Additionally technologists want to be able to work with Chinese companies for cheaper tech and idea swaps.
This is our president swatting at a company that he feels snubbed him, nothing more.

 

[techwhiz]

Election time noise. Move along.

Exactly.
It is not clear that the executive order means anything.
He can claim national security, but if challenged, he and his administration would need to prove it in court.
Also, he might be able to get it removed from the app stores but with the ability to side load on Android and use VPN and proxy servers, it doesn't mean a while lot.

And, what force removal of all installed already done?
Okay.....

 

[GadgetBen]

I understand you guys in China don't like Trump banning Tik Tok yet your government bans Facebook, Google and Twitter, censor human right and democracy activists.

I'm not in China! 🤦‍♂️

 

[Analog Kid]

Could we just narrow this order to banning TikTok's logo? I really hate it everytime it makes an appearance. I start looking around for my 3D glasses.

 

[Plutonius]

Please post the peer reviewed papers/journals citing that children are "virtually immune" as well as your other statistics.

Children are certainly not immune to Covid-19 but I think that the people stating that children are immune are trying to refer to the mortality rate of children.

Out of the 144000+ deaths in the US, less than 270 of the deaths were under age 25. For people under age 15, 45 people have died. This is from the current CDC statistics.

Since you brought it up, what is the connection between the banning of TikTok and Covid-19 in children ?

 

[macdos]

China has so far met all provocations from the lunatic US gubmint with restraint. But this time, Zhongnanhai may not have any other choice but to raise their voice somewhat and give a more appropriate answer.

It is a declaration of war, and American companies in China should be worried right now.

 

[Cosmosent]

I like that he gave it ONLY a 45-day timeline / due date !

 

[826317]

There is a reason US cases and deaths are the worst in the world. He's denied the severity of the virus from day 1. So either he's incredibly incompetent as a leader in that he made a horrifically wrong series of judgement calls (and still continues to do so, 6 months later), or was aware of the severity but lied to the public about it.

Yup he underestimated it, just like the majority of other world leaders did in the beginning. The initial information from the WHO did not help either. I am not sure why you seem to think the US is doing the worst in the world with respect to COVID... Not only has the US been reporting statistics inaccurately, as in, including deaths with COVID as well as deaths from COVID together. That is to say that people whose deaths were not even in part caused by COVID were listed as COVID deaths just because they either tested positive or were merely suspected of having COVID. This inaccuracy has been reported to be around 25% of all reported COVID deaths and that is a conservative figure. The real figure is likely to be higher than that. It has only been recently that some states have made an effort to separate these figures. So all in all we are experiencing the equivalent effects of a very severe flu season. Not exactly sure what he lied about.

And Facebook was confirmed to have manipulated in the 2016 election by foreign influences, as well as data harvesting without a user's consent. What were their consequences? None. Were they banned? No. Was their an executive order issued against them? No.

Like I said, foreign companies who are reported US citizen data to another global super power that is China is of course not going to be tolerated. Facebook, Google and Twitter are American issues that need to go through the American judicial system. If you really cannot see how a Chinese-owned app should be treated differently relative to a domestic-built app, I don't know what to tell you.

You seem to be okay with a US company doing the same thing to your personal data, but because in this case it's a foreign company, it's unacceptable? Don't get me wrong, I don't want a foreign entity having my data, and we seem to agree that China is a problem, but we should note the difference between Facebook and Tik Tok is not their privacy practices or how they handle data, but rather the country in which they are headquartered. You're living under a rock if you don't think Facebook provides data to the US government. And you're okay with that?

Nope, I don't want any company harvesting user data. Does Facebook do that? Of course they do, just like all other companies. Big data is the most valuable commodity after all. Of course I think Facebook should face reprimands.

Your assumptions are wrong. Please post the peer reviewed papers/journals citing that children are "virtually immune" as well as your other statistics. Otherwise, your statistics will be disregarded.

Oh I feel so offended that you would disregard by assertions that are based in scientific fact. The fun thing about science is, it is true, whether the literature is provided or not.

 

[Rigby]

I can’t stand that there’s so much IP theft coming from China & I don’t like the idea of the Chinese government getting people’s data but, “and that the deal must include a substantial payment to the U.S.”?!

How the hell is that legal? What kind of precedent does this set? So now a President can just issue an order that you must sell your company AND send a check to Washington? These are strange times indeed.

Here's how Trump justified this at the presser:

"A very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States because we're making it possible for this deal to happen."

Sounds a lot like:

"Nice companies you have there. Would be a shame if anything happened to them".

 

[Dwalls90]

Children are certainly not immune to Covid-19 but I think that the people stating that children are immune are trying to refer to the mortality rate of children.

Out of the 144000+ deaths in the US, less than 270 of the deaths were under age 25. For people under age 15, 45 people have died. This is from the current CDC statistics.

To be clear, by "people" you mean Trump, since as far as I'm aware, no one has said "children are virtually immune" other than Trump. Feel free to cite a source if I'm missing anyone else. Everyone is sick of constantly needing to excuse or translate Trump's words ("He didn't mean that!", "He was joking!", "This is what he actually meant!"). Children are not immune, period. We don't even know the actual mortality rate of the virus because our testing is still insufficient as a country and our data set is incomplete.

There are 161,800 deaths in the US as of today. Based on the WH forcing hospitals to bypass CDC for reporting of data (ironically, as case counts start skyrocketing again), not sure that we can even rely on CDC data anymore. That said, death count has nothing to do with immunity. We still do not know the long-term effects of COVID, and so we shouldn't look at it as death being the only important metric. There are plenty of young folks that have had it and were hospitalized for weeks, and their organs will be scarred for the rest of their lives.

 

[826317]

Maybe that's because Obama was considered to be a thoughtful President who had the country's best interests in mind

I'm sorry but I genuinely just burst out laughing reading this. 🤣

While you're focussed on how a president talks and acts on television, I'll keep focussing on the following (taken from whitehouse.gov) and they are just a handful of achievements:

Click on the spoiler to see the list

Spoiler: Trump's achievements

• Almost 4 million jobs created since election.
• More Americans are now employed than ever recorded before in our history.
• We have created more than 400,000 manufacturing jobs since my election.
• Manufacturing jobs growing at the fastest rate in more than THREE DECADES.
• Economic growth last quarter hit 4.2 percent.
• New unemployment claims recently hit a 49-year low.
• Median household income has hit highest level ever recorded.
• African-American unemployment has recently achieved the lowest rate ever recorded.
• Hispanic-American unemployment is at the lowest rate ever recorded.
• Asian-American unemployment recently achieved the lowest rate ever recorded.
• Women’s unemployment recently reached the lowest rate in 65 years.
• Youth unemployment has recently hit the lowest rate in nearly half a century.
• Lowest unemployment rate ever recorded for Americans without a high school diploma.
• Under my Administration, veterans’ unemployment recently reached its lowest rate in nearly 20 years.
• Almost 3.9 million Americans have been lifted off food stamps since the election.
• The Pledge to America’s Workers has resulted in employers committing to train more than 4 million Americans. We are committed to VOCATIONAL education.
• 95 percent of U.S. manufacturers are optimistic about the future—the highest ever.
• Retail sales surged last month, up another 6 percent over last year.
• Signed the biggest package of tax cuts and reforms in history. After tax cuts, over $300 billion poured back in to the U.S. in the first quarter alone.
• As a result of our tax bill, small businesses will have the lowest top marginal tax rate in more than 80 years.
• Helped win U.S. bid for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
• Helped win U.S.-Mexico-Canada’s united bid for 2026 World Cup.
• Opened ANWR and approved Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines.
• Record number of regulations eliminated.
• Enacted regulatory relief for community banks and credit unions.
• Obamacare individual mandate penalty GONE.
• My Administration is providing more affordable healthcare options for Americans through association health plans and short-term duration plans.
• Last month, the FDA approved more affordable generic drugs than ever before in history. And thanks to our efforts, many drug companies are freezing or reversing planned price increases.
• We reformed the Medicare program to stop hospitals from overcharging low-income seniors on their drugs—saving seniors hundreds of millions of dollars this year alone.
• Signed Right-To-Try legislation.
• Secured $6 billion in NEW funding to fight the opioid epidemic.
• We have reduced high-dose opioid prescriptions by 16 percent during my first year in office.
• Signed VA Choice Act and VA Accountability Act, expanded VA telehealth services, walk-in-clinics, and same-day urgent primary and mental health care.
• Increased our coal exports by 60 percent; U.S. oil production recently reached all-time high.
• United States is a net natural gas exporter for the first time since 1957.
• Withdrew the United States from the job-killing Paris Climate Accord.
• Cancelled the illegal, anti-coal, so-called Clean Power Plan.
• Secured record $700 billion in military funding; $716 billion next year.
• NATO allies are spending $69 billion more on defense since 2016.
• Process has begun to make the Space Force the 6th branch of the Armed Forces.
• Confirmed more circuit court judges than any other new administration.
• Confirmed Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
• Withdrew from the horrible, one-sided Iran Deal.
• Moved U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
• Protecting Americans from terrorists with the Travel Ban, upheld by Supreme Court.
• Issued Executive Order to keep open Guantanamo Bay.
• Concluded a historic U.S.-Mexico Trade Deal to replace NAFTA. And negotiations with Canada are underway as we speak.
• Reached a breakthrough agreement with the E.U. to increase U.S. exports.
• Imposed tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum to protect our national security.
• Imposed tariffs on China in response to China’s forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft, and their chronically abusive trade practices.
• Net exports are on track to increase by $59 billion this year.
• Improved vetting and screening for refugees, and switched focus to overseas resettlement.
• We have begun BUILDING THE WALL. Republicans want STRONG BORDERS and NO CRIME. Democrats want OPEN BORDERS which equals MASSIVE CRIME.

 

[BootsWalking]

I'm sorry but I genuinely just burst out laughing reading this. 🤣

While you're focussed on how a president talks and acts on television, I'll keep focussing on the following (taken from whitehouse.gov) and they are just a handful of achievements:

Click on the spoiler to see the list

Spoiler: Trump's achievements

• Almost 4 million jobs created since election.
• More Americans are now employed than ever recorded before in our history.
• We have created more than 400,000 manufacturing jobs since my election.
• Manufacturing jobs growing at the fastest rate in more than THREE DECADES.
• Economic growth last quarter hit 4.2 percent.
• New unemployment claims recently hit a 49-year low.
• Median household income has hit highest level ever recorded.
• African-American unemployment has recently achieved the lowest rate ever recorded.
• Hispanic-American unemployment is at the lowest rate ever recorded.
• Asian-American unemployment recently achieved the lowest rate ever recorded.
• Women’s unemployment recently reached the lowest rate in 65 years.
• Youth unemployment has recently hit the lowest rate in nearly half a century.
• Lowest unemployment rate ever recorded for Americans without a high school diploma.
• Under my Administration, veterans’ unemployment recently reached its lowest rate in nearly 20 years.
• Almost 3.9 million Americans have been lifted off food stamps since the election.
• The Pledge to America’s Workers has resulted in employers committing to train more than 4 million Americans. We are committed to VOCATIONAL education.
• 95 percent of U.S. manufacturers are optimistic about the future—the highest ever.
• Retail sales surged last month, up another 6 percent over last year.
• Signed the biggest package of tax cuts and reforms in history. After tax cuts, over $300 billion poured back in to the U.S. in the first quarter alone.
• As a result of our tax bill, small businesses will have the lowest top marginal tax rate in more than 80 years.
• Helped win U.S. bid for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
• Helped win U.S.-Mexico-Canada’s united bid for 2026 World Cup.
• Opened ANWR and approved Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines.
• Record number of regulations eliminated.
• Enacted regulatory relief for community banks and credit unions.
• Obamacare individual mandate penalty GONE.
• My Administration is providing more affordable healthcare options for Americans through association health plans and short-term duration plans.
• Last month, the FDA approved more affordable generic drugs than ever before in history. And thanks to our efforts, many drug companies are freezing or reversing planned price increases.
• We reformed the Medicare program to stop hospitals from overcharging low-income seniors on their drugs—saving seniors hundreds of millions of dollars this year alone.
• Signed Right-To-Try legislation.
• Secured $6 billion in NEW funding to fight the opioid epidemic.
• We have reduced high-dose opioid prescriptions by 16 percent during my first year in office.
• Signed VA Choice Act and VA Accountability Act, expanded VA telehealth services, walk-in-clinics, and same-day urgent primary and mental health care.
• Increased our coal exports by 60 percent; U.S. oil production recently reached all-time high.
• United States is a net natural gas exporter for the first time since 1957.
• Withdrew the United States from the job-killing Paris Climate Accord.
• Cancelled the illegal, anti-coal, so-called Clean Power Plan.
• Secured record $700 billion in military funding; $716 billion next year.
• NATO allies are spending $69 billion more on defense since 2016.
• Process has begun to make the Space Force the 6th branch of the Armed Forces.
• Confirmed more circuit court judges than any other new administration.
• Confirmed Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
• Withdrew from the horrible, one-sided Iran Deal.
• Moved U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
• Protecting Americans from terrorists with the Travel Ban, upheld by Supreme Court.
• Issued Executive Order to keep open Guantanamo Bay.
• Concluded a historic U.S.-Mexico Trade Deal to replace NAFTA. And negotiations with Canada are underway as we speak.
• Reached a breakthrough agreement with the E.U. to increase U.S. exports.
• Imposed tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum to protect our national security.
• Imposed tariffs on China in response to China’s forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft, and their chronically abusive trade practices.
• Net exports are on track to increase by $59 billion this year.
• Improved vetting and screening for refugees, and switched focus to overseas resettlement.
• We have begun BUILDING THE WALL. Republicans want STRONG BORDERS and NO CRIME. Democrats want OPEN BORDERS which equals MASSIVE CRIME.

Who said anything about how he acts and talks on TV? I was speaking to how he has treated and fired his own cabinet members, the same people he himself hired. And you can soon add being the first one-term president in 40 years to his list of achievements.

 

[Analog Kid]

Out of the 144000+ deaths in the US, less than 270 of the deaths were under age 25. For people under age 15, 45 people have died. This is from the current CDC statistics.

This isn't a heart attack or stroke. It doesn't only affect the individual. How many non-children have been infected because they've come into contact with children who were.

I'm not sure if Donald has ever been within 6 feet of Barron, covid or not, but most families are in close contact with their children.

 

[Dwalls90]

Yup he underestimated it, just like the majority of other world leaders did in the beginning. The initial information from the WHO did not help either. I am not sure why you seem to think the US is doing the worst in the world with respect to COVID... Not only has the US been reporting statistics inaccurately, as in, including deaths with COVID as well as deaths from COVID together. That is to say that people whose deaths were not even in part caused by COVID were listed as COVID deaths just because they either tested positive or were merely suspected of having COVID. This inaccuracy has been reported to be around 25% of all reported COVID deaths and that is a conservative figure. The real figure is likely to be higher than that. It has only been recently that some states have made an effort to separate these figures. So all in all we are experiencing the equivalent effects of a very severe flu season. Not exactly sure what he lied about.

Trump was the only first world country leader (besides Brazil and China's) that flagrantly disregarded the severity of the virus. Trump can't control the COVID outbreak that happened in China, nor the WHO (not a US entity), but he can control how, as a leader, he responded to it in the US.

Given how insufficient testing is in the US, there are far more COVID cases and deaths that were missed, compared to deaths that were "accidentally miscounted" as being COVID related. This number will be objectively computed once the excess deaths are tabulated after 2020 ends, and once we see the long-term negative impact COVID has on our already dysfunctional healthcare system.

Please cite your source for the 25% of all COVID reported deaths being actually not related to COVID, or similar to your previous "facts", it will be disregarded.

Like I said, foreign companies who are reported US citizen data to another global super power that is China is of course not going to be tolerated. Facebook, Google and Twitter are American issues that need to go through the American judicial system. If you really cannot see how a Chinese-owned app should be treated differently relative to a domestic-built app, I don't know what to tell you.

We agree on the foreign country issue, notwithstanding Facebook, Google and Twitter already should have gone through the American judicial system, but haven't because our leadership is weak and indirectly benefits from their corrupt practices remaining intact. Given how most apps on your phone snoop data (even Spotify does), it won't be long before any foreign app that mines any personal data in any shape or form is banned from the US. Going to be interesting once Spotify is banned in the US, as well as American jobs being lost because Uber is reciprocally banned internationally by other countries.

Nope, I don't want any company harvesting user data. Does Facebook do that? Of course they do, just like all other companies. Big data is the most valuable commodity after all. Of course I think Facebook should face reprimands.

Glad we agree Facebook is as vile as Tik Tok then. I expect Trump to lead the charge with respect to an investigation into these domestic platforms. But he's had 4 years to do so and hasn't so far, and we know he won't.

Oh I feel so offended that you would disregard by assertions that are based in scientific fact. The fun thing about science is, it is true, whether the literature is provided or not.

You have no literature to assert your facts, and therefore we can disregard them.

 

[Rigby]

I wonder how banning Apple from doing business with Tencent regarding WeChat would affect Apple in the Chinese market. Presumably this means that Apple, being a US company, would have to remove WeChat from the app store. But a phone without WeChat is pretty much worthless in China, since it is widely used for payments and accessing countless other services. Huawei would probably pop the champaign.

 

[826317]

Who said anything about how he acts and talks on TV?

I was referring to Obama. It seems most of his fans only really cared about how he talked and acted charismatic on TV, it seemed to be enough for them.

And you can soon add being the first one-term president in 40 years to his list of achievements.

Biden winning the upcoming election would be a bigger shock than it was when Trump won in 2016. He is simply medically unfit to be a president. Either way, we will see. I'm betting on Trump winning again. This time with a popular vote as well, which I am sure you'll appreciate.

 

[2010mini]

Careful, or President Orange will revoke your visa.

No worries.... I came here illegally. I has no visa.

 

[ScottishDuck]

America has some serious crumbling empire vibes.

 

[BootsWalking]

I was referring to Obama. It seems most of his fans only really cared about how he talked and acted charismatic on TV, it seemed to be enough for them.



Biden winning the upcoming election would be a bigger shock than it was when Trump won in 2016. He is simply medically unfit to be a president. Either way, we will see. I'm betting on Trump winning again. This time with a popular vote as well, which I am sure you'll appreciate.

Perhaps it was how Obama didn't act and speak on TV which people respected. As for being mentally unfit:

 

[826317]

Given how insufficient testing is in the US, there are far more COVID cases and deaths that were missed, compared to deaths that were "accidentally miscounted" as being COVID related. This number will be objectively computed once the excess deaths are tabulated after 2020 ends, and once we see the long-term negative impact COVID has on our already dysfunctional healthcare system.

Insufficient testing? The US has done some of the most rigorous testing out of all countries world wide. The US has even gone above and beyond to test people who have no actually shown any symptoms, something that not a lot of other countries have done. This is also why the cases went up while deaths went down, i.e more tests on non symptomatic people = more confirmed cases. I think you will be very pleasantly surprised when you find out that the total death toll turns out to be over reported by somewhere in the ~30% region once the excess death data is compared (side note, where can I actually see current excess death figures, I've searched quite a bit but only found oddly formatted data which isn't very useful when comparing to current COVID figures, if you know of a source I appreciate it.). In the Republic of Ireland in Europe for example, it has already been calculated that their COVID death toll has been over reported by ~30%+ and cited was the reason I mentioned prior about deaths with COVID rather than from COVID. This report was carried out by HIQA a government authority of the country. https://www.hiqa.ie/sites/default/f...y-in-Ireland-during-the-COVID-19-epidemic.pdf

Glad we agree Facebook is as vile as Tik Tok then. I expect Trump to lead the charge with respect to an investigation into these domestic platforms. But he's had 4 years to do so and hasn't so far, and we know he won't.

He also hasn't tackled government spying on its citizens by the NSA. I'm not sure if there is actually much he can do about things as big as those to be honest.