What just happened? Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump has carried out his promise to issue an executive order essentially delaying the ban on TikTok. For the next 75 days, the Justice Department will not enforce the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, giving owner ByteDance extra time to reach a deal that will allow its US operations to continue.
It's been an eventful few days for TikTok. After failing to divest its US operations as required by the act, the app blocked access for US users on Saturday, hours before it was banned.
TikTok fans didn't have to endure the blackout for long, though. The app's services began returning on Sunday, for which the company thanked Trump. "As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the US," it wrote in a message.
Those efforts refer to Trump's promise to delay the TikTok ban for up to 90 days. On his first day in office yesterday, the president issued an executive order telling the DoJ not to enforce the Act or to punish those who violate it for 75 days "to allow my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way." The order essentially stops American companies like Google and Apple from being fined if they work with TikTok.
The Attorney General is directed to "issue a letter to each provider stating that there has been no violation of the statute and that there is no liability for any conduct that occurred."
TikTok is still not available for download from the US Google Play and Apple App Stores at the time of writing – the app was removed from the stores over the weekend. The companies could face fines reaching up to $850 billion for violating the law, which was recently upheld by the Supreme Court, and likely don't want to risk facing these penalties if state and federal agencies, along with private entities, go to court over the ban not being enforced.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas, wrote that any company that helps TikTok stay online, such as Google or Apple, would be breaking the law and face enormous fines.
Any company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law, not just from DOJ, but also under securities law, shareholder lawsuits, and state AGs. Think about… https://t.co/XamZ1qAk2K
– Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) January 19, 2025
It's also been noted that Trump's order says it's "not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States."
Trump said he intends to review sensitive intelligence related to TikTok's national security concerns and evaluate the efficiency of the mitigation measures the app has taken to date. He previously mentioned a plan in which the US government owns 50% of the company, but it's still unclear how such an arrangement would work.
Soon after TikTok went offline in the US, a Wisconsin teen burned down an office building leased by US Representative Glenn Grothman, one of the Republicans who voted in favor of the law forcing TikTok to sell its US operations or be banned in the United States.
