NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump has announced that social media apps TikTok and WeChat are barred from operating in the US starting 20 September if they are not sold by their Chinese-owned parent companies.

The video-sharing app TikTok has come under the lens of US lawmakers over national security concerning data collection, amid intensified tension between Washington and Beijing.

The order regarding TikTok says that after 45 days "any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd" the Chinese company that owns the social media platform is prohibited.

The ban comes days after tech giant Microsoft was in talks to acquire the US arm of TikTok, which has over 80 million users in the country.

However, the messaging app WeChat has a much smaller presence than TikTok in the US, where it is used mainly by members of the Chinese diaspora, and its owner Tencent.