TikTok could possibly get a 270 day extension to make a deal

The Fine Print of a Foreign Adversarial Application: App Store, Cloud Service Providers, and Other Incremental Third-Party Services

The fine print makes it illegal for any such entities to “distribute, maintain, or update (or enable the distribution, maintenance, or updating of) a foreign adversary controlled application” either through a marketplace or internet hosting services.

The CEOs of Apple and Google received letters from the House committee in December telling them to take precautions to comply with the rules by the deadline.

There are also ways to download TikTok outside the Google and Apple app stores, through processes respectively known as “sideloading” and “jailbreaking.”

They are used in countries with internet restrictions to access blocked social media platforms.

One of the most-discussed workarounds is something called a virtual private network, or VPN, which encrypts users’ location data and makes it look like they are accessing content from another country.

While the law concerns TikTok, it also affects companies that make it available in the U.S., like app stores and cloud service providers.

“If you already have [TikTok] on your phone, it’s not going to disappear from your phone on January 19th or January 20th,” Ruane says. “It will, however, very likely disappear from application stores.”

She says the service will be worse and worse over time, though it’s too early to tell whether that will be a matter of days, weeks or months.

And without the ability to update, the platform won’t be able to fix bugs, add features or address security concerns. It could become incompatible with certain phones when it becomes incompatible with the operating system.

Why Does The Extend the TikTok Deadline Act Have to Be Restricted? A Discussion with Kate Ruane at the Center for Democracy and Technology

The Extend the TikTok Deadline Act will give the company an extra 270 days to leave the Chinese parent company if it wants to avoid being banned in the US. The company would have more time to make a deal, since it wouldn’t overturn Congress’ initial bill. The Supreme Court will make a decision this week about whether the initial law that protects Americans from Foreign Adversary Applications Act is in violation of the First Amendment.

The pfaca was signed into law by the president in April of 2024 and grants the government the authority to ban foreign-owned apps that pose a national security concern.

At the end of the day, Ruane says it’s unclear what, if anything, Trump may do to try to bring back TikTok — an app she says is “not immediately replaceable,” even as new and existing platforms are sure to vie for its many displaced users.

But it will get harder for the platform’s users in the U.S. to access the app, says Kate Ruane, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology (which joined an amicus brief supporting TikTok and its users’ protected speech).

They’re not without potential consequences, for exampleApple will not honor warranties for jail broken iPhones. Ruane thinks the extra steps will deter many TikTok users.

Trump has become a defender of the app, even asking the Supreme Court to stop the law from going into effect, since he once decried it as a national security threat.

If ByteDance were to move papers around, shift assets from one corporation to another, and do fancy legal work, it would give Trump enough cover to say that TikTok is no longer controlled by ByteDance.

“That’s pretty straightforward, but it’s also politically incredibly difficult to do because it would require the changing of votes for many, many, many members of Congress,” Ruane says.

Trump can order the Justice Department and attorney general to not enforce the law, meaning that companies such as Apple andGoogle can still provide services to TikTok.

Making a Profit from Providing Services to TikTok, but with Violations of the L’improperty Law

As lawyers within those companies would still see ‘gigantic legal risk’ in complying with the law, it’s easier said than done.

If a person uses your service to access TikTok and they are in violation of the law it will cost them $5,000. Even though you are technically in violation of the law, if you would agree to provide services to TikTok, you would be able to make a profit of 5,000 times as many people.

The third potential option has been posited by Alan Rozenshtein, an associate law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and research director at Lawfare. In December, Trump told Fresh Air he could just declare that the law no longer applies.

The deal initially had support in the Biden administration, but talks stalled. People close to talks about TikTok’s future say it is possible Trump brings Project Texas back, with Trump potentially determining that the agreement makes TikTok in compliance with the divest-or-ban law.