President Donald Trump has signed an executive action that delays the enforcement of the TikTok ban for 75 days. This action directs the US Justice Department not to enforce the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which required TikTok to be banned in the United States starting January 19 unless it sells to a buyer from America or one of its allies.
The law, passed with broad bipartisan support in Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden in April, gives the president broad discretion on how to enforce the ban. Trump's promise to sign the executive action on Monday led to TikTok going back online after being offline for more than 12 hours.
However, the ultimate fate of TikTok in America remains uncertain. It is unclear if TikTok's China-based owner, ByteDance, would be willing to sell to a buyer, even if brokered by Trump.
Trump mentioned that he changed his mind on TikTok after using the platform himself. He expressed concerns about China potentially obtaining information about young kids through TikTok but stated that there are bigger problems to address.
Regarding the executive action he signed, Trump asserted that he has the authority to either sell TikTok or close it, indicating that a decision on the app's future will be made in the future.
