Trump Halts Enforcement Of TikTok Ban For 75 Days

(RTTNews) - President Donald Trump, on his first day in Office on Monday, signed an executive action as promised to delay enforcement of the ban on social media platform TikTok for 75 days.

With the action, the U.S. Justice Department will be directed not to enforce the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which was signed into law in April last year by former President Joe Biden. The Biden administration last week had stated that it would leave the enforcement of the ban to the new President Trump.

As per the law, TikTok was to be banned in the United States starting January 19 on national security grounds unless ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese parent company of TikTok, sells it to a buyer from the country or one of its allies.

In addition, the law directed TikTok's technology partners, reportedly including tech majors Apple, Google and Oracle, which hosts TikTok's content in the U.S., among others, to stop supporting the app or face fines of up to $5,000 per person who has access to the platform.

After the U.S. Supreme Court last Friday upheld the decision to ban, the popular short-video sharing app used by over 170 million Americans had started disabling services in the country.

However, the platform began restoring its services on Sunday after then President-elect, and now President, Trump, announced his support to the service on his social media platform Truth Social, as well as at a rally on Sunday, ahead of his inauguration.

In a social media post, Trump had promised that he would issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect, so that they could make a deal to protect national security. "The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order," he had then added.

As per the law, the President holds broad discretion on how to enforce the ban.

In his executive action, Trump said, "The unfortunate timing of section 2(a) of the Act — one day before I took office as the 47th President of the United States — interferes with my ability to assess the national security and foreign policy implications of the Act's prohibitions before they take effect. This timing also interferes with my ability to negotiate a resolution to avoid an abrupt shutdown of the TikTok platform while addressing national security concerns."

President Trump instructed the Attorney General not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from Monday to allow his Administration "an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans."

While talking to reporters at the Oval Office, Trump stated that he has the right to either sell it or close it, and that he will make that determination.

Earlier on Sunday, responding to Trump's support, TikTok in a post on the X platform, had thanked the new President for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to its service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans, and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive. Tiktok also said then that the firm will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.

Trump earlier had talked about the U.S. to have a 50 percent ownership position in a joint venture, between the current owners and/or new owners, so as to save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up.

Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok, but with the approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars - maybe trillions, Trump had said.