President Trump signed an executive order on Monday to delay enforcing a federal ban of TikTok for 75 days, even though the law took effect on Sunday and it remains unclear that such a move could override it.
The order, one of Mr. Trump's first acts after taking office, instructs the attorney general not to take any action to enforce the law so that his administration has "an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward." It is retroactive to Sunday.
As he signed the order, Mr. Trump told reporters that "the U.S. should be entitled to get half of TikTok" if a deal for the app is reached, without going into detail. He said he thought TikTok could be worth a trillion dollars.
The order may be immediately met with legal challenges, such as whether a president has the authority to stop the enforcement of a federal law. Companies covered by the law, which bars services from being provided to Chinese-owned TikTok, may find that the order does not grant them immunity from lawsuits.
A federal law banning the application owned by ByteDance required that TikTok must sell it to a non-Chinese owner or the app will be blocked. It merely gives the government a chance of 90-day extension in case a likely buyer is identified.
Still, one does not know if such a chance will avail itself given the fact that this law is now in force. The law also limits how much of a TikTok stake can be retained under foreign ownership.
Seeking to circumvent federal law, Mr. Trump raised significant questions about the scope of presidential authority and the rule of law in the United States. Many lawmakers and legal experts are concerned with the legality of an executive order at a time when a Supreme Court decision on Friday had upheld the law, while national security concerns had first driven legislators to write it.
The law, which was signed by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. after passing overwhelmingly in Congress last year, compels ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban. TikTok had faced security concerns that the Chinese government could use it to spread propaganda or collect U.S. user data. The law imposes financial penalties on app stores and cloud computing providers unless they stop working with the app.
TikTok briefly went dark for U.S. users over the weekend, but returned Sunday following Mr. Trump’s social media announcement that he was planning an executive order. While the app was working again for people who have already downloaded it, it vanished from Google’s and Apple’s app stores on Saturday and remained unavailable on Monday.
The implications for its users are massive if Mr. Trump can keep TikTok online. The app has reshaped the social media landscape, defined popular culture, and created a living for millions of influencers and small businesses that rely on the platform.
In the executive order, Mr. Trump said his constitutional responsibilities include national security. It says he wants to consult with advisers to review the concerns posed by TikTok and the mitigation measures the company has taken already.
According to the order, the administration will "pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans," according to the order, which called the law's timing "unfortunate.
The attorney general will also send letters to companies covered by the law to make them know, "that there has been no violation of the statute" and they will be free from accountability in offering service to TikTok for the last 75 days, according to the order. That may not go a long way into alleviating worry, legal specialists said.
""That doesn't make sense with faithful execution of the law to instruct the attorney general not to enforce it for a determinate period," said Zachary Price, a professor at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. "And even if that's OK, the president doesn't have the authority to eliminate the law itself and remove liability for the people who violate it while it's not being enforced."
TikTok and Apple did not respond to requests for comment. Google declined to comment.
TikTok's China ties have long been a source of national security concerns, and Mr. Trump was no exception. Near the end of his first term in 2020, Mr. Trump issued an executive order that would bar app stores from making TikTok available for download. He then pushed for an American company to buy the app, but those efforts fizzled when he lost re-election.
Last year, Congress revived the effort and Mr. Biden signed it into law in April. The law aimed at app stores, such as those run by Apple and Google, and cloud computing companies. It said those companies could not distribute or host TikTok unless the app was sold to a non-Chinese owner by Jan. 19.
Mr. Trump then reversed positions. He joined the app in June and said on television in March that there are young people who would go “crazy” without TikTok.
“I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn’t have originally,” Mr. Trump said as he signed executive orders Monday evening.
TikTok challenged the law in federal court, arguing that it impeded its users' rights to freedom of speech as well as the company's own First Amendment rights. The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the law in December. TikTok appealed to the Supreme Court, which on Friday also upheld the law.
TikTok and some Democrats made a last-ditch effort to stop the law from taking effect. But on Saturday, TikTok stopped operating in the United States and disappeared from Apple's and Google's app stores a few hours before midnight. Users grieved its disappearance.
On Sunday morning, Mr. Trump announced on Truth Social that he would "issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security." He vowed not to penalize companies that had violated the law in keeping the app up and running.
Hours passed and TikTok regained its services for the American users and posted the message of returning back, saying, "Due to President Trump efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.! "
Mr. Trump, sitting at the Resolute desk and signing executive orders in the Oval Office, was asked what changed his mind on the application.
"I was allowed to," he said.
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