President Donald Trump extended the deadline for China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok for 75 days.
Trump wrote on Truth Social:
My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress. The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days. We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs (Necessary for Fair and Balanced Trade between China and the U.S.A.!). This proves that Tariffs are the most powerful Economic tool, and very important to our National Security! We do not want TikTok to “go dark.” We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
In April 2024, former President Joe Biden signed a national security law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok.
ByteDance challenged the law, which made it to the Supreme Court.
SCOTUS unanimously upheld the law, acknowledging that the TikTok law “is in many ways different in kind from the regulations of non-expressive activity that we have subjected to First Amendment scrutiny.”
“Those differences—the Act’s focus on a foreign government, the congressionally determined adversary relationship between that foreign government and the United States, and the causal steps between the regulations and the alleged burden on protected speech—may impact whether First Amendment scrutiny applies,” the Court explained.
Well, SCOTUS concluded that the First Amendment does not apply since ByteDance is a foreign company responsible for the app, and the law does not target speech.
ByteDance’s original deadline fell on January 19, the day before Trump’s inauguration.
Trump signed an executive order on the 20th that gave the company 75 more days to sell the popular app.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY