Inside Story

Trump bans TikTok over security concerns

More than 100 million Americans will not be able to download two of the world’s most popular apps from Sunday.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has banned two Chinese apps – TikTok and WeChat – from app stores.

Trump is accusing them of collecting data from users that can be retrieved by Beijing. TikTok is used to download videos and is hugely popular in the US while WeChat is widely used as a chat app, payment portal and news source.

Does the president’s decision rob Americans of their freedoms?

And will lead to an east-west divide of the internet?

Presenter: Halla Mohieddeen

Guests:

Mitch Stoltz – a San Franciso-based attorney focusing on copyright and free speech

Manya Koetse – a China social trend and online media watcher based in Amsterdam

Dipayan Ghosh – leads the Digital Platforms & Democracy Project at Harvard University