By Lauren Egan - NBC News
President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday revoking a mandate from his predecessor, Donald Trump, to ban the popular Chinese video app TikTok in the United States.
Biden's new order asks, instead, to thoroughly review the apps of foreign companies, instructing the Department of Commerce and intelligence agencies to inform it about the potential risk they may pose to the confidentiality of personal data and to security. national.
A TikTok app logo on a smartphone screen on Monday, September 28, 2020 in Tokyo.AP Photo / Kiichiro Sato
Trump in August 2020 banned US companies from doing business with ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok.
He also pressured the company to sell its app to a US company as a condition for continuing to operate in the country.
TikTok appealed the order in court and Trump's veto never came into effect, although sales negotiations did take place with Oracle or Microsoft.
[An 'army' on TikTok armed with short videos challenges Trump: "I wish he cared as much about the pandemic as about the apps"]
"By operating on United States information and communication technology devices, including personal electronic devices such as smart cell phones, tablets, and computers, connected software applications can access and store large amounts of user information, including personal information of citizens. of the United States and commercial information ", explains the text signed by Biden.
"This data collection threatens to offer foreign adversaries access to that information. That foreign adversaries can access large amounts of personal information of United States citizens also represents a significant risk," the executive order underlines.
