Trump issues an executive order to suspend the US TikTok ban. But can it stick?
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to keep TikTok operating for 75 days, a relief to the social media platform바카라 게임 웹사이트s users even as national security questions persist.
TikTok바카라 게임 웹사이트s China-based parent ByteDance was supposed to find a U.S. buyer or be banned on Jan. 19. Trump바카라 게임 웹사이트s order could give ByteDance more time to find a buyer.
바카라 게임 웹사이트I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Trump said.
Trump has amassed nearly 15 million followers on TikTok since he joined last year, and he has credited the trendsetting platform with helping him gain traction among young voters. Yet its 170 million U.S. users could not access TikTok for more than 12 hours between Saturday night and Sunday morning.
The platform went offline before the ban approved by Congress and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court took effect on Sunday. After Trump promised to pause the ban on Monday, TikTok restored access for existing users. Google and Apple, however, still have not reinstated TikTok to their app stores.
Business leaders, lawmakers, legal scholars, and influencers who make money on TikTok are watching to see how Trump tries to resolve a thicket of regulatory, legal, financial and geopolitical issues with his signature.
How did the TikTok ban come about?
TikTok's app allows users to create and watch short-form videos, and broke new ground by operating with an algorithm that fed viewers recommendations based on their viewing habits. But concerns about its potential to serve as a tool for Beijing to manipulate and spy on Americans pre-date Trump's first presidency.
In 2020, Trump banning dealings with ByteDance and the owners of the Chinese messaging app WeChat. Courts ended up blocking the orders, but less than a year ago Congress overwhelmingly passed a law citing national security concerns to ban TikTok unless ByteDance sold it to an approved buyer.
The law, which went into force Sunday, allows for fines of up to $5,000 per U.S. TikTok user against major mobile app stores 바카라 게임 웹사이트 like the ones operated by Apple and Google 바카라 게임 웹사이트 and internet hosting services like Oracle if they continued to distribute TikTok to U.S. users beyond the deadline for ByteDance's divestment.
Trump on Sunday said he had asked TikTok's U.S. service providers to continue supporting the platform and app while he prepared to sign an executive order to stop the ban for now.
바카라 게임 웹사이트The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Trump posted on Truth Social, his social networking site.
The law that Congress passed and now-former President Joe Biden signed in April allowed for a 90-day extension if there had been progress toward a sale before the statute's effective date. Less certain is whether that provision can be applied retroactively, according to Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University바카라 게임 웹사이트s Tech Policy Institute.
바카라 게임 웹사이트Executive orders cannot override existing laws,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Kreps said. 바카라 게임 웹사이트It바카라 게임 웹사이트s not clear that the new president has that authority to issue the 90-day extension of a law that바카라 게임 웹사이트s already gone into effect.바카라 게임 웹사이트
What difference might the sale of TikTok make?
Kreps also doubts the conditions for a delay exist at this point without so much as even a potential buyer being named to prove that a sale was moving along.
But Alan Rozenshtein, a University of Minnesota law professor, has written that the law also empowers the president to decide what constitutes a "qualified divestiture바카라 게임 웹사이트 바카라 게임 웹사이트 suggesting Trump could have discretion to say whether or when ByteDance meets the terms of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
Although ByteDance spent months repeating it wasn't interested in selling, Beijing on Monday also signaled a possible easing on China's stance on TikTok to allow it to be divested from its Chinese parent company. China바카라 게임 웹사이트s vice president held meetings with Vice President JD Vance and Tesla tech titan Elon Musk on Sunday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning, said Monday that business operations and acquisitions 바카라 게임 웹사이트should be independently decided by companies in accordance with market principles.바카라 게임 웹사이트
바카라 게임 웹사이트If it involves Chinese companies, China바카라 게임 웹사이트s laws and regulations should be observed,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Mao said.
Until now, it was widely believed that Beijing would not allow the sale of TikTok, which had come to embody China바카라 게임 웹사이트s defiance in the face of 바카라 게임 웹사이트U.S. robbery.바카라 게임 웹사이트 However, TikTok was among several issues brought up in a phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump on Friday, though details were not available.
Trump later announced plans to delay the TikTok ban and suggested a joint venture in which the U.S. would get a 50% ownership of the app. Shou Zi Chew, TikTok바카라 게임 웹사이트s CEO, attended Trump바카라 게임 웹사이트s inauguration, seated with American tech heavyweights.
Who or what can enforce the ban?
The Justice Department is generally tasked with enforcing the laws of the federal government, so it바카라 게임 웹사이트s possible that Trump will direct the DOJ to ignore the law. Such a move might itself be subject to legal scrutiny but would buy time for TikTok.
Trump바카라 게임 웹사이트s efforts to save TikTok may put him at odds with some of the House members and senators who voted for the law, which received broad bipartisan support. House Speaker Mike Johnson called ByteDance's ownership 바카라 게임 웹사이트a very dangerous thing,바카라 게임 웹사이트 and said he expected a full sale to happen.
바카라 게임 웹사이트I think we will enforce the law,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Johnson told NBC 온라인 바카라 게임바카라 게임 웹사이트 바카라 게임 웹사이트Meet the Press바카라 게임 웹사이트 on Sunday.
Legislators now stand to 바카라 게임 웹사이트look a little bit silly바카라 게임 웹사이트 if the ban doesn바카라 게임 웹사이트t last, Kreps said.
바카라 게임 웹사이트(The case) becomes about the separations of powers, and checks and balances, that we don바카라 게임 웹사이트t have a king who decides what happens with the law,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Kreps said. 바카라 게임 웹사이트Enforcement isn바카라 게임 웹사이트t only up to the executive branch.바카라 게임 웹사이트
What are other potential legal obstacles?
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, in a message posted on X, listed a number of state and federal agencies, and private entities, that might be willing to go to court to get the ban enforced.
바카라 게임 웹사이트Any 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,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Cotton noted.
Despite the intense scrutiny and potential costs involved, the machinations over TikTok are in some ways just business as usual for the tech companies involved, according to Gus Hurwitz, a legal scholar with the International Center for Law and Economics.
바카라 게임 웹사이트The fines that we바카라 게임 웹사이트re talking about are civil penalties and companies risk civil penalties all the time,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Hurwitz said.
Still, the hard business calculus of complying with a law in limbo or risk defying a president who holds lucrative federal contracts over those companies could come into focus if shareholders sue.
Oracle, for example, has a part of to build its cloud computing network.
바카라 게임 웹사이트This actually could be the right business decision to make,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Hurwitz said. 바카라 게임 웹사이트That바카라 게임 웹사이트s not necessarily a breach of duty to shareholders.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Which companies are deciding whether to trust Trump's assurances?
There바카라 게임 웹사이트s been lots of questions about how companies such as Oracle and Akamai Technologies are powering TikTok바카라 게임 웹사이트s servers to stay online, while others such as Apple and Google have made the app unavailable for new users to download.
None of the companies have responded to requests for comment.
Oracle in 2020 announced it had a 12.5% stake in TikTok Global after securing its business as the app바카라 게임 웹사이트s cloud technology provider.
Meanwhile, as of Monday night, a search for TikTok on Apple바카라 게임 웹사이트s app store directs to an online statement that reads in part: 바카라 게임 웹사이트Apple is obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates,바카라 게임 웹사이트 while Google바카라 게임 웹사이트s app store notes downloads for TikTok 바카라 게임 웹사이트are paused due to current US legal requirements.바카라 게임 웹사이트
