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Trump will ban TikTok and WeChat in US beginning Sunday, Internet calls him a 'bitter old man'

The announcement came Friday as the president is expected to announce whether or not the government has a deal for Oracle to take a minority stake and become a 'trusted technology partner' for TikTok in the US

The Commerce Department will be banning all US business transactions with Chinese-owned social apps WeChat and TikTok on Sunday. The announcement came Friday morning as President Donald J. Trump is expected to announce whether or not the government has a deal for Oracle to take a minority stake and become a “trusted technology partner” for TikTok in the US, CNBC reported.

According to the outlet, the Commerce Department’s announcement could be "an aggressive move" by the Trump Administration to push for TikTok to be fully owned by a US company. “At the President’s direction, we have taken significant action to combat China’s malicious collection of American citizens’ personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of U.S. laws and regulations.” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement Friday.

That said, the announcement appears to be enforcing Trump's August 6 executive order that gave the company 45 days to "sell its U.S. business to a U.S. company or face a ban in the U.S." WeChat, a popular social messaging app in China, is owned by Chinese giant Tencent, while TikTok is owned by another Chinese company ByteDance.

Starting September 20, all US companies would be banned from hosting or distributing WeChat and TikTok, which means even the major app stores owned by Apple and Google would have to take them down from their libraries, per the Friday announcement. That said, the decision will also blocks US companies from using WeChat “for the purpose of transferring funds or processing payments within the U.S.”

While the Commerce Department has clarified it will not seek to compel Americans to remove the apps from their phones, they will not allow further updates or new downloads. "We are aiming at a top corporate level. We're not going to go out after the individual users," one Commerce official told Reuters.

According to them, the lack of updates will degrade the apps' usability over time. "The expectation is that people will find alternative ways to do these actions," a senior official said. "We expect the market to act and there will be more secure apps that will fill in these gaps that Americans can trust and that the United States government won't have to take similar actions against."

Twitter erupted with a barrage of reactions from both sides of the political aisle following the Friday announcement. "The real threat is actually to Trump because he's not able to manipulate the users on the platform using foreign interference to the same level as other social media platforms. He can't spread his message of disinformation across TikTok like he can on Facebook," author Amee Vanderpool tweeted.

"Trump says he’s now been informed the US government can’t get a cut of the TikTok sale," CNN's Kaitlan Collins added.

"Reports say @tiktok_us has reached a deal with an American company. I’m urging the Trump Administration NOT to approve it unless it involves a clean break w/ @BytedanceTalk & total separation from #Beijing," Republican Sen. Josh Hawley wrote, sharing a document that appeared to be an agreement.

"Wow ... bitter old man Reports #Trump to ban #TikTok downloads starting #Sunday My fav Trump TikTok," voice-over artist Zora Suleman chimed in.