. @GtownTechLaw begins by discussing the #TikTok #WeChat EO is based on the IEEPA - the International Emergency Economics Act. What are the limits here executive orders, as well as mounting tensions between the US and China?

"On the day our nation suffered its greatest economic downtown in modern history, Trump announced he was banning TikTok"

"This week, the president told conservative talk radio that 'if I don't win the election, you will be forced to learn Chinese.'" - @AnupamChander on the context in which we find these #TikTok and #WeChat EOs.

. @BobbyChesney - An EO doesn't make it possible to enforce sanctions. There needs to be a second step. Possibilities: Pres does it directly (such as freezing assets); OR there is a directive by the Pres to Treasury or Commerce to come up with a sanctions plan.

The completed IEEPA system is not currently in place for #TikTok and #WeChat - the president is trying to use last year's national emergency declaration related to supply chains and Huawei to umbrella in these apps.

By mid September, the secretary of commerce needs to define what "all transactions" mean under the EOs on #TikTok and #WeChat. They could be very broad; they could be very specific.

"IEEPA is a statue from which we have long had very severe concerns-it's very broad; presidents can claim too much power under it. It can be used to political and discriminatory purposes in response to real, perceived, or hyped threats"- @HinaShamsi @GtownTechLaw #TikTok #WeChat

The vagueness and lack of specificity in the EOs seem to be the greatest concern of the panelists so far.

"There are millions of US users of #TikTok and #WeChat with First Amendment rights. They watch and post videos. They rely on for conversations with family. These are all First Amendment protected purposes. Banning two entire platforms - this is unprecedented."

"It's true the Chinese gov suppresses and censors. It's also true TikTok and WeChat sweep up different kinds of data. So do American companies. If this was about privacy, we might be thinking about surveillance reform or consumer privacy legislation. That's not what these EOs do"

"IEEPA was conceived of as more restrictive than the 'trading with the enemy act' when it was passed in 1977." - @julianku @GtownTechLaw

The idea of IEEPA was to restrict the president's power, make him more transparent, and give congress the check. INS vs. Chadha ruined this."

"IEEPA was intended to be broader than protecting the rights of US citizens. It's almost meant to protect national security interests outside of the United States."

"Something has changed with China. #WeChat is not the problem. #TikTok is not the problem. The threat is the Chinese government. They have demonstrated a willingness to use social media at home and abroad for espionage, to recruit agents, hacking"

"The Chinese government can leverage personal data in ways hostile to the US. It's not about individuals, but about using data in a way that's negative to the US. The Chinese government is the target. #TikTok and #WeChat are uniquely vulnerable here."

"There is a tradition in the US on nationality requirements for business and media. A nationality ban on apps isn't unreasonable given the baseline - FTC requires nationality and can deny based on it; Rupert Murdoch had to become a U.S. citizen for US media buys." - @julianku

"Are we borrowing from US/FTC precedent, or are we borrowing from what China did to YouTube and Twitter? TikTok has "Americanness" down its ranks" - @AnupamChander

. @tiffanycli "TikTok harvests more data than it promised; TikTok does not protect children's data. These are all pretty bad things. But U.S. tech companies do these as well - not giving data to China, but passing the gov data under lawful policies."

"What's the difference? If both TikTok and FB are giving data to a lot of sources, the main difference is TikTok's parent company is in China, even if TikTok is US-based. WeChat is not US basedl. That's a key difference in where the data might be going." @tiffanycli

"TikTok has been found to have discriminatory content moderation policies. But it's not true TikTok isn't out there to suppress speech. Some of this is the problem of a young social media platform not knowing how to moderate content at scale."

"This is a two-fold problem. On one hand, you have Chinese gov making global internet norms. For instance, #WeChat isn't end-to-end encrypted, and that can have global privacy and security ripples."

"But second, if we start banning apps without due natsec cause, we are no longer the free and open internet speech defenders" - @tiffanycli @GtownTechLaw

"When you parse through the EOs, there is both lack of specificity and lack of actual evidence to US interests vs. supposition of what might happen. The logic of these bans breaks down when you think about similarities and differences to what US companies do"

"There may be reasons for concern, but they are not listed in the executive orders."

"The EO references search histories,but it is not clear if this references Google,or in-app. This seems like an intentional obfuscation by the gov to hide what is happening. In the app, no duh. The app has to know what you're searching for in order to response." - @AnupamChander

"The action will be around #WeChat. #TikTok most likely will get swept up by another company, be it Microsoft or whoever. But no U.S. company is going to sweep up WeChat. Tencent is where the battle is."

"If you are a user of TikTok, and you love it, and you want it to stay, demand better of the app. Demand transparency. Demand privacy protections."