- President Trump extended TikTok service in the United States by 90 days
- Extension may not be legally enforceable
- Trump promised not to fine companies hosting the app
TikTok restored its service in the United States after being offline for less than 24 hours following its ban for failure to sell or divest from its owner Bytedance, which the United States said had ties to the Chinese government.
However, President Trump’s reinstatement of the service (which was acknowledged in the application) may not be legally binding and could expose web hosting services to lawsuits and huge fines.
“Any company that hosts, distributes, maintains or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars in ruinous liability under the law,” Senator Tom Cotton warned on X (formerly Twitter), “not just from the DOJ, but also under securities law, shareholder suits, and state AGs. Think about it.
Trust Trump or the law
Although he was not in office when the ban was declared, President Donald Trump reassured suppliers that the 90-day extension would be put in place and no fines would be imposed in order to so that Americans can attend his inauguration. However, the problem remains that Congress has made a legal ruling that TikTok must divest or be sold to an American company to continue operating in the United States or risk being banned.
As a result, providers hosting the TikTok app, such as Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store, could face fines of up to $850 billion, or $5,000 per user who accesses to the application via their services.
As The edge points out that companies that break the law and restore service could challenge fines and lawsuits in court by citing Trump’s promise not to enforce Congress’s decision against providers.
Additionally, Trump himself could be challenged in court by TikTok competitors such as Meta or hosting the application.
However, given that major tech CEOs, including Zuckerberg, Musk and Cook, have all donated seven-figure sums to Trump’s inauguration fund, it is unlikely that Trump will face objections from of those who seek to gain his favor.
