TikToc Ban
On May 15, 2019, then-President Trump signed an executive order banning TikTok unless the service owner ByteDance Ltd sold its ownership stake to an American company. This was struck down by the US Supreme Court which ruled that the ban could not be implemented by an executive order. Congress then followed up with a law enforcing the ban.
President Joe Biden signed a bill in April 2024 that will ban TikTok in the U.S. beginning in January unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance sells the platform to a government-approved buyer. The main impetus for the ban is national security. Lawmakers worry ByteDance could leak U.S. user data to the Chinese government if pressed to do so.
The ban would force app stores to remove TikTok in the U.S., preventing ByteDance from supporting the app and providing users with app updates. The outlook is that TikTok will eventually become unstable, buggy and unusable without continued support.
While running for office, Trump pledged to reverse the TikTok ban if elected after noticing that he was very popular on TikTok. This is the same ban he advocated for in 2019,
The ban was scheduled to take effect on January 19, 2025, days before Trump reassumed the presidency. An emergency appeal to the SupremCourt requested that the ban be delayed. The Court rejected the request for delay.
Once reelected, President Trump signed an executive order reversing the congressional ban on TikTok. It is questionable if an executive order can be used to negate a congressional-passed law.
The law does allow for a waiting period during which the owners of TikTok can find a solution to the ownership issue. President Trump has indicated he is working with several buyers who would be willing to split the ownership of TikTok with the US government as he proposes.
TikTok timetable here: https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/TikTok-bans-explained-Everything-you-need-to-know
More TikTok information here: https://www.theverge.com/23651507/tiktok-ban-us-news
