As Congress has found, TikTok poses a serious threat to U.S. national security. It allowed the Chinese government to access vast troves of data on TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users. The Supreme Court on Friday held that Congress’s Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024, which would have required the sale or shutdown of TikTok, did not violate first amendment.

despite this, Trump administration An executive order will reportedly be issued this week to suspend the law for 90 days. Trump’s aides said he needed time to reach a deal to keep the social media sites open, according to media reports.

But such an order is likely to breach the 2024 Act. The law gives TikTok 270 days to find a buyer or face closure – a period that ends on January 19, 2025. Trump has two problems. First, he takes office on January 20, 2025, the day after the sale or divestment requirement takes effect. There is no extension to the 270-day period. TikTok must be shut down or sold before Trump takes office. Professor won’t give student extension back The deadline for the paper has passed.

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Second, even if the government could grant an extension, its order would not comply with the requirements of the law. The April 2024 bill requires him to prove three facts: a) there is “a path” to divest TikTok; b) there is “evidence that the sale has made significant progress”; c) “there is” a legal agreement to execute the sale. None of these three things happened. In fact, TikTok now faces Scylla and Charbidis being sold or shut down, as it has steadfastly rejected all acquisition offers. Nothing makes it clearer that the Chinese government views TikTok as an intelligence-gathering device and not just another commercial enterprise.

Except as provided in the bill, the government does not have the authority to suspend sales or shut down TikTok. Only Congress, not the executive branch, has the authority to regulate “…trade with foreign nations.” Without this authority, the executive order is likely to face significant legal challenges.

The 2024 bill not only regulates TikTok but also penalizes any company that “distributes, maintains or updates” the app or provides “internet hosting services.” These provisions appear to include not only Apple App Store and Google Play, but also any cloud service that hosts TikTok, such as those operated by Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon, and Google. It might even reach Internet service providers such as Comcast and Spectrum. Violations of the law carry fines up to $5,000 From TikTok user;My calculator lost count when it discovered that the potential fines exceeded $1 trillion.

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The law itself only empowers the attorney general to prosecute TikTok and the companies for that penalty. But that doesn’t end these companies’ troubles. First, shareholders (of which I am one) can sue management for allowing their company to break the law.

Even if a court may find that Trump’s executive order poses little risk ultra vireswith fines running into the hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars, meaning management could be exposed to risks expected to be worth billions of dollars. A judge will likely rule that the CEO, who continued to support TikTok and took such huge financial risks with little success, should be held accountable for mismanagement.

It turns out that the state threat to these companies may be even greater. The Attorney General has the authority to protect consumers who reside in the state. State law enforces basic consumer fraud laws prohibiting misrepresentations in the sale of products.

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If these companies allow TikTok operationsthey may be violating these consumer fraud statutes—they will be offering products that are illegal under federal law. These companies are similar to stores that offer medications that have lost FDA approval and are no longer safe and effective.

In fact, it would be even worse if these companies were selling drugs that Congress ordered off the market, which would be even more comparable. States such as Texas and Florida may want to launch investigations into TikTok and the major tech companies that facilitate its distribution and operations.

Ideally, President Trump would resolve these legal issues simply by allowing the bill to take effect. He takes no responsibility for the shutdown of TikTok; on the one hand it was a joint decision of Congress; Communist Party of Chinay, on the other hand.

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His larger responsibility is to protect U.S. national security, which, as he recognized during his first term (when he tried to shut down TikTok without congressional consent), needs to stop China from collecting vast amounts of data about Americans. information capabilities.

On this issue, Trump’s second term would do well to follow the lead of his first.

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