Donald Trump halts TikTok ban, giving app 75-day extra time in executive order
TikTok news: Donald Trump has signed an executive order allowing TikTok a 75-day grace period to resolve US national security issues.
TikTok news: US President Donald Trump temporarily halted a ban on TikTok in the US, granting the company and its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd. 75-day extra time to reach a deal for the popular app that would resolve long-standing US national security concerns.
TikTok’s lifeline came via an executive order signed by Donald Trump on Monday in one of his first acts after taking office. The move gives the video-sharing platform reprieve from a US prohibition that took effect on Sunday following ByteDance’s refusal to comply with a law requiring it to divest. Trump had spent the past several days promising an extension was on the way.
“I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok,” Donald Trump said in the White House.
Trump has amassed nearly 15 million followers on TikTok since he joined last year, and he has credited the trendsetting platform with helping him gain traction among young voters. Yet its 170 million US users could not access TikTok for more than 12 hours between Saturday night and Sunday morning.
The platform went offline before the ban approved by Congress and upheld by the US Supreme Court took effect on Sunday. After Trump promised to pause the ban on Monday, TikTok restored access for existing users. Google and Apple. However, it still have not reinstated TikTok to their app stores.
Business leaders, lawmakers, legal scholars, and influencers who make money on TikTok are watching to see how Trump tries to resolve a thicket of regulatory, legal, financial and geopolitical issues with his signature.
How did the TikTok ban come about?
TikTok's app allows users to create and watch short-form videos, and broke new ground by operating with an algorithm that fed viewers recommendations based on their viewing habits. But concerns about its potential to serve as a tool for Beijing to manipulate and spy on Americans pre-date Trump's first presidency, news agency Associated Press reported.
In 2020, Trump issued executive orders banning dealings with ByteDance and the owners of the Chinese messaging app WeChat. Courts ended up blocking the orders, but less than a year ago, Congress overwhelmingly passed a law citing national security concerns to ban TikTok unless ByteDance sold it to an approved buyer.
The law, which went into force Sunday, allows for fines of up to $5,000 per US TikTok user against major mobile app stores — like the ones operated by Apple and Google — and internet hosting services like Oracle if they continued to distribute TikTok to US users beyond the deadline for ByteDance's divestment.
Trump on Sunday said he had asked TikTok's US service providers to continue supporting the platform and app while he prepared to sign an executive order to stop the ban for now.
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