On Friday, January 17, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld a federal law banning TikTok unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, begins a sale by Sunday, January 19. Last night, January 18th, TikTok went dark. In response, users were no longer able to view the content and major app stores removed their platforms for download. However, according to the Associated Press, TikTok resumed its service in the United States earlier today, apparently in response to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s insistence that he suspend the ban via executive order on his first day in office. .
This morning (January 19), President Trump told Truth Social, “On Monday, I will issue an executive order extending the period until the law’s ban goes into effect so that agreements can be made to protect national security.” I intend to do so,” he wrote. This order also confirms that I will not be liable to companies that helped stop TikTok from going dark before my order. ”
The president-elect continued, “We want the United States to have 50% ownership in the joint venture. That way we can save TikTok, keep it in good hands and claim it. Without US approval, Tik Tok does not exist. Therefore, my first thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or the new owners, set up between the US and a buyer of our choice. In a joint venture, the U.S. would take 50% ownership.” Is Trump proposing that TikTok could become a government-run app, or could it be a platform co-owned by Trump himself? It is unknown if there is a gender.
Federal law gives a sitting president the power to grant a 90-day extension if there is “significant progress” in a sale to a non-Chinese company, but ByteDance is still waiting for investors to make an offer. has repeatedly stated that it will not be sold. The company that operates TikTok in the United States said the measures outlined by President Trump on Sunday provided “necessary clarity and assurances to our service providers that no penalties will be imposed,” but TikTok remains tied to Apple. It was still not available for download on Google’s app store.
The Supreme Court ruled Friday that TikTok’s claims of danger to national security are a First Amendment right, despite objections from party leaders who feared it would alienate 170 million U.S. users. The court ruled that the concerns outweighed the concerns, and unanimously approved the law. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law after Congress overwhelmingly passed it, but said Sunday he would not take it into effect.
President Trump threatened to ban TikTok several times during his first term as president, and even tried to do so by issuing an executive order. In response, TikTok filed suit against the US government in August 2020. Shortly after taking office in June 2021, Biden signed an executive order revoking President Trump’s ban on TikTok and instead directing the Secretary of Commerce to investigate whether the app poses a threat to U.S. national security. I ordered him to do it. . Reports have revealed that ByteDance employees in China may have access to personal user data in the United States in 2022. TikTok then announced that all US user traffic would instead be routed to the US tech company’s servers, Oracle Cloud.
In April 2024, Biden signed the bipartisan TikTok bill, giving ByteDance six months to sell control of the app or face being banned in the United States. Weeks later, TikTok filed a new lawsuit to block the law, calling it an “extraordinary violation” of its free speech rights. ”The court ultimately concluded in an unsigned opinion that “Congress must use the sale to address well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and its relationships with foreign adversaries.” “I judged that it was necessary,” he argued.
