President Joe Biden on Wednesday revoked the previous administration’s administrative orders on TikTok and WeChat.
His predecessor, Donald Trump, targeted Chinese-owned apps last August, calling their widespread use a “national emergency”.
According to the new order signed by Biden, the U.S. Department of Commerce must regularly evaluate applications related to foreign opponents such as China and take action when it determines that they constitute a national security risk.
According to the White House, the order also provides criteria for identifying applications that may pose an “unacceptable risk” to national security.
Since Trump issued two executive orders last year, TikTok’s fate in the United States has been in a state of uncertainty, when the application’s data collection practices were based on national security considerations.
One of the executive orders prohibits TikTok transactions, while the other requires the Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the application’s business in the United States.
These orders would actually ban TikTok, sparking a battle to find buyers for this popular app. Oracle and Wal-Mart reached a complex deal that seemed to be blessed by Trump, but it was not completed before he left office.
According to reports, the transaction was suspended when the Biden administration reviewed the security risks posed by TikTok and other Chinese-owned apps. Neither TikTok nor WeChat immediately responded to requests for comment.