It didn’t take long. President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders shortly after taking office. That included suspending the law banning TikTok in the United States.
The executive order means that the Trump administration’s Justice Department will not enforce laws that protect Americans from regulatory applications by foreign adversaries for 75 days, effectively extending the time the company has to reach an agreement. Trump said in a statement that the “unfortunate timing” of the law, which took effect in the final hours of President Joe Biden’s term, prompted him to proactively assess the impact of the law’s prohibitions on national security and foreign policy. He said his abilities were hindered. effect. “
He wrote that he would review “sensitive information” related to national security concerns raised by the app’s critics and “evaluate the adequacy of mitigation measures taken to date by TikTok.” The company previously embarked on a multiyear effort known as Project Texas to move U.S. user data to servers hosted by Oracle. The deal followed years of negotiations with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which were halted last year.
TikTok (and other ByteDance apps) went offline late Saturday ahead of the law taking effect on Sunday. However, TikTok’s outage only lasted a few hours. Services have gradually been restored after President Trump promised to sign an executive order suspending the law after taking office on Monday. “The companies that helped prevent TikTok from going dark before my order are not responsible,” he declared. Trump also proposed a joint venture in which U.S. interests would take a 50% stake in TikTok.
Earlier on Monday, China (where ByteDance is based) struck a deal with the US that would allow TikTok to continue operating in China in the long term, despite previously saying it would block forced sales of the app. He showed a positive attitude. “We believe that companies should make autonomous decisions regarding business operations, acquisitions, and other actions in accordance with market principles,” said Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “When Chinese companies are involved, they should comply with Chinese laws and regulations.”
During his first administration, President Trump sought to ban TikTok in the United States. He signed executive orders to that effect, including an attempt to force ByteDance to sell its U.S. operations. That didn’t happen at the time. But pressure on TikTok increased during the Biden administration, with former President Biden signing a bill last year requiring it to be sold to ByteDance or face a ban in the United States.
