US President Donald Trump issued a 75 day pause over enforcement of a law that would ban TikTok in the US.
This delay marks one of Trump’s earliest moves in office, giving the app a lifeline after it shut down in the US on Saturday due to the ban’s deadline.
The law, known as the ‘Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act’, came into effect on 19 January and was passed by Congress last year under the Biden administration. The act targeted the distribution and updates of TikTok, citing national security concerns over potential data misuse by the Chinese government.
Trump, however, credited TikTok for helping him win over young voters in his election campaign. “I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn’t have originally, but I went on TikTok and I won young people,” Trump remarked while signing the order.
TikTok restored
Trump had promised to issue an executive order as soon as he took office to delay the ban and allow time to “make a deal.”
TikTok resumed operations in the US on Sunday, praising Trump’s intervention. The app said, “We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties for providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans.”
The outgoing Biden administration had previously stated it would not enforce the ban, but the new executive order provides legal clarity to companies like Apple and Google, which were under pressure to remove TikTok from their app stores, failing which penalties of up to $5,000 per user would have been charged in case the app was accessed.
The order ensures they will not face penalties for continuing to host or update the app during the pause.
Under the directive, the attorney general must issue guidance to service providers and companies such as Oracle, which hosts TikTok’s US servers, confirming they won’t face liability during this period.
The 75-day delay aims to provide the new administration with time to negotiate a resolution that safeguards national security while preserving the platform, which has a massive user base of 170 million in the United States.
The ban on this short-form-video platform in the US was enforced following a unanimous decision by three federal judges, who dismissed the platform’s claim that the law violated First Amendment free speech rights. On 17 January, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected TikTok’s appeal, paving the way for the ban to take effect on 19 January.
