WASHINGTON—President Biden revoked executive orders targeting the Chinese-owned TikTok and WeChat apps initiated by former President Donald Trump and signed a new order requiring security reviews of these and other apps in the jurisdiction of foreign adversaries.
The order Wednesday doesn’t target any companies specifically. Instead, it directs the Commerce Department to evaluate all software applications with potential ties to foreign adversaries including China and take action to protect data on U.S. citizens gathered by the apps.
The new executive order is designed to replace the Trump administration’s approach targeting individual companies with a broader process for reviewing risks posed by apps that are connected to potentially hostile countries, according to senior Biden administration officials.
The officials say they remain concerned about security risks from Chinese and certain other foreign-owned apps but that the executive orders signed by Mr. Trump were effectively unenforceable.
Federal court rulings had blocked the orders from taking effect. In the case of TikTok, Mr. Trump had sought to shut down the app in the U.S. if the company wasn’t put under control of U.S. owners.
