On his first day in office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the DOJ not to enforce penalties against app stores and other service providers for working with China’s TikTok for a period of 75 days.
The Verge reports that in a move aimed at circumventing the recently enacted Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in office effectively delaying the enforcement of the TikTok ban. The order instructs the DOJ to refrain from taking any action to enforce the Act or impose penalties on companies for non-compliance with the law for a period of 75 days.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which took effect on January 19, requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to spin off from the popular video-sharing app or face a ban in the United States. The law, passed with bipartisan support and signed by former President Joe Biden, was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Trump’s executive order aims to provide his administration with an opportunity to determine the appropriate course of action regarding TikTok in an orderly manner. The order directs the Attorney General to issue letters to service providers, stating that there has been no violation of the statute and that there is no liability for any conduct that occurred during the specified 75-day period or any period prior to the issuance of the order.
Despite the President’s assurances, legal experts have raised concerns about the effectiveness of the executive order in protecting companies from potential penalties. Under the law, companies could face up to $850 billion in fines for violating the TikTok ban, and the government could act on any potential violation for up to five years after it occurs. The executive order itself states that it does not create any enforceable rights or benefits against the United States, further complicating the legal landscape for companies choosing to work with TikTok.
In addition to the executive order, Trump declared on Sunday that the U.S. government could own 50 percent of TikTok through an unexplained “joint venture” with a private company. The details of this proposed arrangement remain unclear.
The executive order has created uncertainty for companies like Apple and Google, which removed TikTok from their app stores following the January 19th deadline. While TikTok briefly went offline on Sunday, it quickly came back online, although it has not yet been reinstated in the app stores.
Read more at the Verge here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
