Trump signs executive order to restore TikTok and protect tech business partners
After a brief period of TikTok being unavailable to those in the US, President Trump signed an executive order pausing the law banning the China-owned social media app.
Upon returning to the White House on Monday, January 20, President Trump signed dozens of executive orders, including one to pause the law that sought to ban TikTok and provided a liability shield to business partners of the app. This means that the law will be paused for 75 days and companies working with Tiktok will not be penalized for doing so.
Specifically, the order states that it aims to give Trump’s administration time “to pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans.”
Speaking at the Oval Office immediately after signing the document, Mr Trump said, as reported by NPR: “Essentially with TikTok I have the right to sell it or close it. We may have to get approval from China. I’m not sure. I’m sure they’ll approve.”
President Trump went on to say that his administration will work on “a joint venture” between the United States and undisclosed other entities, noting that there are “a lot of people who would be interested.”
Why was TikTok banned?The original law that banned TikTok took effect on Sunday and would have levelled fines at companies supporting TikTok so long as it’s controlled by ByteDance, a Beijing-based tech company. US lawmakers in favor of the bill raised concerns that TikTok would cooperate with the Chinese government on international surveillance.
The Supreme Court ruled that the national security concerns associated with the video-sharing app justified a forced sale. This led to web hosting and cloud infrastructure companies like Oracle and Akamai dropped their services to TikTok, while Google and Apple both removed the app from their stores. Those companies can now freely resume offering services to TikTok.
TikTok also switched off its servers, leaving the app open but dark for millions of Americans for about 14 hours. Service returned on Sunday morning, along with a message applauding President Trump (despite being ahead of his inauguration) for planning to postpone the ban.
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