The top Senate intelligence Democrat says that Trump’s TikTok delay is against the law

The Trump-Douglas TikTok Impact on the U.S. Reciprocal-Target Anomaly

This week, Trump raised tariffs on some products entering the US, including a 34 percent rate against China. The president decided to extend the delay instead of shutting the TikTok app down, since he said he would consider a lower rate in exchange for China agreeing to the deal.

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.

When the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act took effect just ahead of Trump’s inauguration, TikTok voluntarily turned its service off for a day. It and other Byte Dance-owned apps were removed from their stores as well.

On Inauguration Day, Trump signed an executive order effectively pushing back the start of the ban by 75 days, and promising immunity for other tech companies that provide back end services for the app, such as Apple and Google, which host it in their web stores. The extension was due to end on April 5.

Although Trump delayed the ban, it is still technically illegal for TikTok to operate in the U.S. with ties to China. The popular app, TikTok, can stay online despite being in violation of a federal statute, as long as Trump and his administration assure them that they will not be prosecuted.

According to NPR, the White House chose the cloud computing company as a top contender to lead a coalition of other investors in TikTok’s U.S. operation.

Likewise, securing the approval of the Chinese government has been a key sticking point this time around, with TikTok insiders telling NPR that any sale blessing from Beijing could hinge on China landing some kind of relief from tariffs.

Tease Me Down: The State of the Art after Trump’s Delay of the U.S. App Store Recommender App

She is a policy reporter at The Verge, covering Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley. She wrote about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation for 5 years at CNBC.

After signing an executive order, Trump told the Attorney General and Department of Justice to not impose any penalties for noncompliance with the Act. 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.

The members of the House Select Committee on China, including the Chair, released a joint statement after Trump announced the extension. The statement didn’t address legal concerns, but it did state that any resolution must ensure that U.S. laws are followed and the Chinese Communist Party does not have access to American user data. The letter says signatories “look forward to more details” on a proposed deal.

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) was more critical in a phone interview with The Verge. Warner thinks the whole thing is a sham if Beijing doesn’t move out of the way. Will the Republicans find their voice now that they know this was a national security threat?

The Supreme Court upheld the protection of Americans from foreign admiral applications in January of this year, after the act passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. Legislators have doubted that TikTok’s defense that the Chinese government can’t access user data or the scales of the recommendation feed is true.

Tech companies are forced to choose between taking TikTok offline or risk ruinous legal liability, because ofTrump’s extension.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a member of the China Committee who’s criticized the law and warned it will harm free expression and creators’ livelihoods, also wants to see a solution go through Congress, but is seeking a full repeal of the law. Still, he called Trump’s delay a “good step.”

The first coordinated move to put a line in the sand on the topic appeared to be the statements from China Committee and E&C Republicans. Some Republicans who support the divest-or-ban law have previously urged Trump’s compliance in one-off statements or writings. Moolenaar wrote in an op-ed that an adequate deal must break with ByteDance after reports that Trump is considering a deal withoracle that would leave some ties intact. Senate Judiciary Chairman Josh Hawley told reporters that he would advise the President not to sign a deal if it didn’t comply with the statute. If he can’t get a deal to sell the company in a way that fully complies, Hawley thinks Trump “ought to enforce the statute and ban TikTok. This middle way, I don’t think is viable.”

Warner believes that the Biden administration should have been more aggressive in trying to negotiate a sale of TikTok that would keep the app in the US. He is concerned that a foreign government may be able to influence young Americans.