Trump Administration to Ban more China-based Apps in the country

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US President Donald Trump’s administration is now looking to ban more Chinese apps that it believes could pose a national security threat. The news comes from White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who reportedly made the comment to reporters aboard Air Force One. CNBC reported that Meadows didn’t mention the specific apps that could be banned. Point to be noted that President Trump has previously signed an executive order against TikTok and Chinese messaging app WeChat. The US government has shown concerns that the application could collect data from US citizens. The Indian government is also blocking 118 Chinese applications in the country. The applications banned include PUBG Mobile, Rise of Kingdoms, Chinese search giant Baidu, and apps made by WeChat.

Most of these banned apps were generic without brand names, such as Photo Gallery & Album and Web Browser. The Indian government had banned 59 other apps, including TikTok. The ban took place after receiving several reports about the misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers that have locations outside of India. Now the Trump administration is looking to make more restrictions on Chinese app-makers. Trump’s executive order specifically cited the actions of the Indian government, repeating the assertions about data theft and transmission. The American companies and organizations have started banning TikTok on their devices.

The US administration is now taking more aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect US national security. It is noteworthy that some Chinese applications do have a questionable history with regard to their relationship with the Chinese government. It has been claimed in a report from the cyber research group Citizen Lab that WeChat censored messages about the coronavirus on its platform and stopping them from being sent through their servers. Former lawsuits have also alleged that TikTok secretly gathered vast quantities of user data and sending it to servers in China. Western governments have seen China as both a rival superpower requiring opposition and a lucrative economic force which helped mitigate the impact of the 2008 recession with rapid expansion.