Greater than six months after TikTok was banned, we nonetheless do not know precisely what its destiny within the US might be. However we do have new perception into the authorized wrangling that has allowed Apple, Google and different platforms to proceed to help the app.
In case you keep in mind, TikTok was solely “banned” for a matter of hours shortly earlier than President Donald Trump took workplace in January and of the regulation. The app’s service was promptly restored January 19, 2025, however the app did not return to Apple and Google’s app shops till February 13. Reporting on the time urged the businesses had lingering considerations about potential legal responsibility for working afoul of the Defending Individuals from International Adversary Managed Functions Act.
Again in February, Axios and others reported that the Justice Division had given “assurances” to tech platforms that they would not be penalized for violating the regulation. Now, we all know precisely what Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi informed the companied as letters despatched to Apple, Google, Amazon, Oracle and different corporations have been made public. The letters have been disclosed in a Freedom of Data Act Request made by Tony Tan, a software program engineer and Google shareholder the search large for not complying with the TikTok ban.
In a letter dated January 30, 2025, Bondi tells Apple and Google that “the President has decided that an abrupt shutdown of the TikTok platform would intrude with the execution of the President’s constitutional duties to care for the nationwide safety and international affairs of the USA.” It goes on to state that Apple and Google “could proceed to offer companies to TikTok … with out incurring any authorized legal responsibility.”
A followup later dated April 5, 2025 (the day after Trump gave TikTok 75-day reprieve), Bondi informed the businesses that “the Division of Justice can be irrevocably relinquishing any claims the USA may need had towards” them “for the conduct proscribed within the Act in the course of the Lined Interval and Prolonged Lined Interval, with respect to TikTok and the bigger household of ByteDance Ltd. and TikTok, Inc. functions coated underneath the Act.”
The letters could be learn in full beneath.
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The regulation has now been paused since Trump took workplace. Earlier this week, he that particulars about TikTok’s new possession may very well be made public in “about two weeks.”
