The TikTok app has not been banned in the U.S. since Trump signed the Decay of Jan. 7, 2017: Trump’s 75–day delay and the consequences for the app
Donald Trump’s initial 75-day delay against enforcement of the TikTok ban law would’ve expired this weekend, but on Friday, he announced on Truth Social that “I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days.”
He said the administration hopes to “continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs,” referring to the 34 percent levy on Chinese imports Trump announced this week.
The Friday reprieve provides TikTok with a bit of breathing room in what has been a bumpy year. A federal law took effect in January that legally banned the service nationwide unless it split away from ByteDance, the Beijing tech giant that owns the viral video app, which it did not.
Starting the evening of Jan. 18, just before the ban was planned to take effect, the app went dark for 14 hours. But it flickered back on the next day after Trump promised to sign an order delaying enforcement of the ban once he was sworn into office.
Legal experts say Trump’s delays do not halt the TikTok ban, meaning it is still technically illegal for TikTok to operate in the U.S. with ties to China. Yet moves by Trump and his administration assuring TikTok and its service providers that U.S. authorities will not prosecute anyone under the law have been enough for the popular app to stay online despite operating in violation of a federal statute.
The White House was said to be considering a coalition of investors to purchase a large stake in TikTok’s US operation.
The approval of the Chinese government will be a key point in determining the sale approval, with TikTok Insiders telling NPR that the approval of the Chinese government will be key to the sale approval.
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is a senior editor following news across tech, culture, policy, and entertainment. He began working at The Verge after several years of reporting news at Engadget.
The Attorney General and Department of Justice were told not to take action to enforce the Act after Trump’s inauguration. But with the law still on the books after the Supreme Court declined to delay it and with the risk of billions of dollars in penalties, the app took nearly a month to return to US app stores before they were apparently satisfied by the AG’s assurances.