With no hard evidence of abuse, are bans warranted? The real security concerns will likely come after the ban goes into effect, researchers said in our exclusive roundtable.

UPDATE

Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat over the weekend have gotten an 11th hour reprieve from a plan to cut off access to them.

As a ban on U.S. downloads loomed for Sunday, TikTok owner ByteDance reached an agreement to sell significant ownership stakes to Oracle and Walmart. While the deal is reviewed, the Department of Congress has put the download ban on hold for at least a week.

Meanwhile, a U.S. judge blocked the Commerce Department’s plan to outright ban Chinese messaging app WeChat, owned by Tencent.

On the TikTok front, Oracle has agreed to take a 12.5 percent in the Chinese firm, while Walmart will take a 7.5 percent share, according to Bloomberg. Together, the companies will pay a combined $12 billion for the 20 percent ownership share at ByteDance’s current asking price, which values the company at $60 billion overall, sources told the outlet.

The idea is that the 20 percent sale will cover TikTok’s U.S. operations – but ByteDance will still retain an 80 percent stake in the new entity, which will be called TikTok Global, and could still maintain control over the app’s code and technology development.

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