TikTok and WeChat are still available in mobile app stores, despite a threatened ban by executive order, and for that President Trump should be thankful. The fallout on the cybersecurity front would have been considerable.
While the Google and Apple app stores would have no longer offered the apps, users who already downloaded the app would have been able to still use it. Like a book injunction, which can force booksellers to return distributed copies of a banned book back to the publisher, Apple and Google can make these apps disappear. They were not ordered to do that. This serves as a great illustration of the unintended cyberrisks that attend seemingly unrelated decisions.
With a ban in place, TikTok and WeChat users in the U.S. would no longer be supported. In the event of a newly discovered security vulnerability, there would be no patch. The potential ramifications for security would have been enormous. TikTok has an estimated 100 million users in the U.S. alone. WeChat has 19 million.
Security vulnerabilities are discovered every day. Technology companies play a constant game of catch-up with hackers seeking to exploit even relatively minor opportunities. Most software companies are willing to pay white hat hackers to ferret out these vulnerabilities before cybercriminals do. In June, the company that owns and maintains both TikTok and WeChat allocated $140,000 for so-called "bug bounties." Bounty hunters find bugs all the time, and they are patched all the time.
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