TikTok and its U.S. user base can breathe a temporary sigh of relief as President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order seeking to delay banning the app.
In one of his first official acts as the 47th President of the United States, Trump ordered the U.S. Attorney General not to enforce a law cracking down on TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps — along with the companies that distribute or otherwise work with them — for 75 days.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, passed in April, targets TikTok and other “foreign adversary controlled applications” over national security concerns. It also promises massive fines against companies that distribute these apps on their platforms, support them with web hosting and cloud infrastructure, or work with them in other ways.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law last week, with it going into effect on Sunday. TikTok and its infrastructure partners shut down the platform’s U.S. operations at the time, while Apple and Google pulled the app (and others owned by ByteDance) from the App Store and Play Store, respectively.
TikTok came back online in the U.S. after a 14-hour blackout as Trump promised an executive order to stall the ban and ensure immunity for the app’s business partners.
Should the Attorney General agree to hit pause on the law, the Trump administration plans to “pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans,” the new President said in the executive order.
The law requires that TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, sell its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban on its apps. Shortly after the law passed, ByteDance explicitly refused to divest TikTok’s U.S. business.
Trump noted that the unfortunate timing of the law’s enforcement didn’t leave his administration with enough time to assess the situation and negotiate a resolution. The newly inaugurated U.S. President plans to consult with his advisors on TikTok’s national security concerns and determine the adequacy of the measures taken by the platform to alleviate them.
Trump has also suggested a joint venture with undisclosed parties where the U.S. government would hold a 50% stake in TikTok.
TikTok — and other ByteDance Ltd. apps like CapCut — are back to working in the U.S., but they are yet to be restored to the App Store or Play Store. Whether Trump’s executive order will be enough to convince Apple and Google to change that remains to be seen.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
