On Jan. 20, recently inaugurated President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing TikTok 75 additional days to divest from its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance.
After the Supreme Court of the United States’ decision to uphold the constitutionality of the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary-Controlled Applications Act,” [PAFFACAA] on Jan. 17, TikTok “went dark” for approximately 14 hours beginning on Jan. 18.
However, TikTok was back online within 24 hours after shutting down. On Jan. 19, users could access TikTok again and were greeted with a message from TikTok themselves thanking Trump for his promised executive order before his inauguration.
According to the official executive order, Trump instructed the Attorney General to not enforce the ban for the allotted 75 days to allow ByteDance the opportunity to find a buyer the U.S. government determines that is not operated by a foreign adversary.
“I am instructing the Attorney General not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my 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,” Trump said.
Despite Trump’s order and the pressure of a sale, ByteDance has made no formal announcement that TikTok will be sold.
While this executive order gives millions of Americans more time with the app, other methods of continuation are being further explored as well.
Congressman Ro Khanna and Dr. Rand Paul introduced a bipartisan bill that would repeal the PAFFACAA, claiming that the law violates American’s free speech rights.
“A government that can ban an app, can ban a book. A government that can silence a platform, can silence a person. Today, it’s TikTok. Tomorrow, it’s your news. Next week, it’s your voice,” Paul said. “Some politicians think the First Amendment has fine print. It doesn’t. The right to free speech doesn’t come with exceptions. Not for apps. Not for ideas. Not for politicians who think they know better than you.”
Senator Ed Markey [MA] said that he would “soon introduce the ‘Extend the TikTok Deadline Act’” to extend the deadline by which ByteDance must sell TikTok or face a ban of an additional 270 days.
Markey said that despite issues that TikTok has, the app is vital to the “economic livelihood” of the Americans who use the app.
“Let me be clear: TikTok has its problems. Like every social media platform, TikTok poses a serious risk to the privacy and mental health of our young people. I will continue to hold TikTok accountable for such behavior. But a TikTok ban would impose serious consequences on millions of Americans who depend on the app for social connections and their economic livelihood.” Markey said.
While numerous forms of legislation have been introduced to allow TikTok to stay, many Americans and politicians are criticizing both the Biden and Trump administration for how they responded to the ban when it was initially passed.
“Both the Biden and Trump administrations are now looking to see if there’s any way to reverse or stall it [the TikTok ban]; and if they’re looking at that now, why didn’t they look at it then [when the law was passed],” said Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
