Trump sign an order not to enforce the TikTok ban

Tech and Media Regulators in the Light of Recent Measures by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, D-UT Sen. Mike Lee and the Equal Time Rule

With a Republican majority at the FCC, Brendan Carr will have the power to lay the groundwork for future regulations that will have major repercussions for the tech and media industries.

Regardless, Carr will need a third Republican vote on the commission to approve any measures that are not bipartisan in nature. Trump has nominated Mark Meador, a former staffer to Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), to join the commission, pending Senate confirmation.

The FCC chair has suggested that he could use his power to revocation spectrum licenses if he felt it was a violation of the equal time rule. There was an argument about the host of SNL before the election and NBC being in violation of rules for giving candidates the same time and place on the air.

Another risk for Apple, Google, Oracle and other firms backing TikTok: The possibility of Trump later turning against the video app and then trying to use the law in retaliation.

Carr listed tech and media regulation, and agency actions on spectrum, infrastructure, and the space economy were some of the areas of focus.

On top of all this, the rule the order says it’s “not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States,” which makes it even less reliable as a defense for companies.

It is unclear if Trump can legally stop the TikTok ban. The law allowed for a 90-day extension if ByteDance announced a sale to a non-”foreign adversary”-based company before the deadline, but not only has no such sale been announced, it’s legally ambiguous whether the extension can be used after the 19th. Trump is attempting to ignore the law by using the deadline.

Trump announced on Sunday that the US government will own 50 percent of TikTok through an unexplained joint venture with a private company. It remains unclear how this would work.

TikTok is Dark: The First Day Trump’s Executive Action Will See the First Day of the Clean Clean New York Superconductor Ban

“The law confers an extraordinary amount of power upon the office of the president,” said Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington who specializes in tech policy.

Some legal experts expect Trump’s executive action to be challenged in court by a tech company to seek a “declaratory judgement,” a ruling to clear up the muddy legal picture. They think that Apple and other tech companies are concerned about shareholder lawsuits if they run afoul of the federal statute.

If Trump tells Congress that certain things have not happened, he will be lying to them about the actual start date of the ban.

This order will give the administration time to pursue a resolution that protects national security, while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans.

The firms that provide web hosting and cloud infrastructure for TikTok dropped the video app on the eve of that date. Google and Apple removed TikTok from their app stores. For about 14 hours TikTok was dark for millions of Americans.

While Trump’s executive action Monday attempts to clarify the legal landscape for TikTok, Constitutional scholar Alan Rozenshtein of the University of Minnesota Law School said trying to extend the law’s start date and insulate companies from liability does not change an act of Congress.

“Those actions do not stop the law from being in effect. It is not stopping, as far as I can tell, as Oracle is violating the law right now.