What TikTok Ban Means for Google, Facebook, Apple: The Information’s Tech Briefing

The Trump administration’s order to ban new downloads of TikTok and WeChat has raised an important question for the likes of Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Netflix: Should they file a legal challenge to the order?

Banning foreign-owned apps has near-term implications for Apple, which faces the prospect that iPhone owners who rely on WeChat to communicate with friends or family in China could switch to Android devices, where sideloading of apps to get around the ban is probably easier than on iOS. More importantly, though, the precedent this sets is dangerous for any internet company with a global business.