President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Justice Department to enforce rules requiring TikTok to spin off from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a ban.
The order, issued on President Trump's first day in office, aims to effectively extend the deadline for the sale by reducing penalties for U.S. companies that partner with TikTok, including Apple and Google. The law directs the attorney general to “not take any action to enforce this law for 75 days from today to allow my administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate future course in an orderly manner.” are. The AG will “issue a letter to each provider stating that there was no violation of law and that they are not responsible for the actions that occurred.”
The order further directs the Department of Justice “shall not take any action to enforce the law or impose penalties against any entity for violations of the law” and “for the period specified above. “All such acts should be prohibited.” for the period specified or for any period prior to the issuance of this order (including the period from January 19, 2025 until the signing of this order). ”
President Trump, who issued an executive order banning TikTok during his first term in 2020, is now trying to circumvent the bipartisan law that went into effect on January 19th. Before taking office, he posted on Truth Social that he was “urging companies” to continue working with TikTok, which could result in hundreds of billions of dollars in fines if Trump's guarantees are not upheld in court. There may be a risk of being exposed. TikTok briefly went down on Sunday, but quickly came back online — although it remains removed from Apple and Google's app stores.
It's unclear whether President Trump can legally suspend the TikTok ban. The law would have allowed a 90-day extension if ByteDance announced a sale to a company based in a non-“foreign adversary” before the deadline, but no such sale was announced. However, it is legally ambiguous whether an extension can be used after the deadline. 19th. In any case, Trump is not taking advantage of the deadline so far, he is just trying to nullify the law.
Despite this reassurance, it may still not be enough to convince service providers covered by the law to reinstate TikTok. As many legal experts have pointed out, these companies could be fined up to about $850 billion for violating the law, which was passed by a bipartisan Congress and passed by Joe Biden. Former President Biden also signed it and it was upheld by the entire Supreme Court. The government can take action if there is a potential violation even five years after the violation occurred. The executive order doesn't change that, but it may help give companies a bit more due process defenses to fight it. Companies may still not risk lawsuits over the possibility of such large fines, but they may also be wary of incurring the wrath of President Trump by refusing to work with TikTok. .
In addition to all of this, this order is not intended to create “any substantive or procedural, legally or equitably enforceable right or interest in the United States by any party; That is not the case.'' This makes the order even-handed. It is less reliable as a defense for a company.
President Trump also declared Sunday that the U.S. government owns 50% of TikTok through an unspecified “joint venture” with a private company. How this works is still unknown.
