President Donald Trump did it Issued an executive order Asking the Justice Department not to enforce a rule requiring TikTok to be separated from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a ban.
The order, issued on Trump’s first day in office, aims to extend the deadline set by the Protecting Americans from Controlled Apps from Foreign Adversaries Act for ByteDance to sell its stake by undercutting sanctions on US companies like Apple and Google that work with TikTok. It directs the Attorney General “to take no law enforcement action for 75 days from today to allow my Administration the opportunity to determine the appropriate path forward in an orderly manner.” The AG is supposed to “issue a letter to each service provider stating that there has been no violation of the law and that there is no liability for any conduct that occurred.”
Further, the order directs the Department of Justice “not to take any law enforcement action or impose any sanctions against any entity for any non-compliance with the law” and says they should be prohibited from doing so “due to any conduct that occurred during the above-mentioned period or any A period prior to the issuance of this Order, including the time period from January 19, 2025 until the signing of this Order.
Trump, who issued an executive order banning TikTok during his first term in 2020, is now trying to circumvent a bipartisan law that took effect on January 19. He posted on Truth Social before taking office that he was “asking companies” to continue working with TikTok, a move that could mean risking hundreds of billions of dollars in fines if Trump’s assertions are not accepted in court. TikTok went down briefly on Sunday, but quickly came back online — although it was removed from the Apple and Google app stores and has not returned.
It’s unclear whether Trump can legally stop the TikTok ban. The law allows a 90-day extension if ByteDance announces a sale to a non-“foreign adversary” company before the deadline, but not only has such a sale not been announced, it is legally ambiguous whether the extension can be used after the 19th. In any case, Trump is not using the deadline yet, he is just trying to sidestep the law.
Despite these reassurances, it may not be enough to convince covered service providers to reinstate TikTok. As several legal experts have pointed out, these companies could face potential fines of up to about $850 billion for violating the law — which was passed by a bipartisan Congress, signed by former President Joe Biden, and upheld by the entire Supreme Court. The government can act on a potential violation even five years after it happens — and the executive order doesn’t change that, though it may help give companies a slightly better due process defense to fight it. The companies still may not risk litigation over such a potentially large fine, though they may also be wary of angering Trump by refusing to work with TikTok.
On top of all this, the rule in the order states that “it is 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,” making the order equal. Less reliable as a corporate defense.
Trump also announced on Sunday that the US government could own 50 percent of TikTok through an unexplained “joint venture” with a private company. It is still unclear how this will work.
