August 12, 2020
On August 6, 2020, the President of the United States (“POTUS”), Donald J. Trump, issued an Executive Order on Addressing the Threat Posed by WeChat (the “WeChat Order”), a widely used mobile application owned and operated by Tencent Holdings Ltd. (“Tencent”), based in Shenzhen, China. In the Order, the President stated that WeChat poses a threat to “the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States” due to how the mobile application stores the data of U.S. citizens and businesses. Additionally, the WeChat Order asserted that WeChat censors the transmission of information unfavorable to the Communist Party of China. While the WeChat Order does not target traditional national security issues, data security and privacy are increasingly at the forefront of U.S. national security concerns.