Appetite for VPNs surged in the U.S. over the weekend as citizens realized President Donald Trump could soon block their access to Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat.
Appetite for VPNs surged in the U.S. over the weekend as citizens realized President Donald Trump could soon block their access to TikTok and WeChat.Last Friday, the Trump administration said TikTok would be banned from U.S. app stores from Sunday. However, on Sunday, Trump gave his "blessing" to ByteDance's deal with Oracle that will enable TikTok to keep operating in the U.S.
Daniel Markuson, digital privacy expert at NordVPN, told CNBC that NordVPN has seen more interest than normal from U.S. citizens since the announcement of the ban on TikTok and WeChat on Aug. 6. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Surfshark, another VPN provider, said the company saw a notable uptick in free trials. "Comparing last weekend to this weekend , we reported a 38% surge in free trials. Since TikTok aims to reach Generation Z, the 'mobile-first' generation, I presume it might be connected," they said.
"What's funny is my mum uses WeChat to communicate with me," she said. "So we started to talk about VPN apps."
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