WeChat ban: Apple and Disney warn Trump against blocking Chinese app in call with White House

Donald Trump's planned actions against WeChat could cause considerable problems for some of the world's biggest businesses, the president has been warned.

Apple, Disney and many other of the world's most valuable and powerful firms warned the president that plans to restrict use of the Chinese app could damage their business, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In all, more than a dozen international companies participated in the call with White House officials, ahead of an executive order that goes into effect towards the end of next month.

That executive order said that Chinese apps represent a threat to the "national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States". When it goes into effect in September, it will ban anyone in the US from undertaking any "transaction" with WeChat or its parent company Tencent.

It followed a very similar order that put similar restrictions on TikTok, for many of the same reasons. That order is expected to be overturned if the video app can be sold to a US organisation, with Microsoft reported to be the frontrunner in the race to buy TikTok before it is banned.

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