A group of US senators have written to President Trump to warn him that his handling of the TikTok ban is leaving Apple, Google, and Oracle exposed to “ruinous legal liability.”
The three companies are potentially at risk of being fined up to $850B (yes, billion not million) for continuing to offer the app despite it being banned from the US …
The story so far
- The law requires the app to be sold to an American company
- Until that happens, TikTok remains banned in the US
- That is, the app can be used, but US companies can’t host it or offer it for download
- TikTok briefly went offline in the US
- Trump issued an executive order pausing enforcement of the law
- But the law remains in effect, and Trump’s order is probably unlawful
- Apple didn’t accept Trump’s assurance and kept it out of the App Store
- Oracle chose to break the law to continue hosting it in the US
- Apple later accepted an assurance from the DOJ and returned it to the App Store
Apple and others face ‘ruinous’ liability
Three US senators have now written to Trump warning him that his handling of the matter is leaving three US tech giants exposed to unprecedented financial liability.
Although we continue to oppose the TikTok ban, it is unacceptable and unworkable for your Administration to continue ignoring the requirements in the law, as you did in January by extending the divestment deadline to April 5 […]
[Instead of legally extending the deadline] you directed the Department of Justice to not enforce the law for 75 days. This prescribed non-enforcement of the TikTok ban was not only unlawful but also raised serious questions about TikTok’s future, as the law imposes liability — up to $850 billion — on companies for facilitating TikTok’s continued operations in the United States, such as Oracle for providing cloud computing services to TikTok and Apple and Google for distributing TikTok in their respective app stores.
Moreover, the statute of limitations for violations of the Act is five years. As a result, even if Oracle, Apple, or Google were confident that your executive order would protect them from ruinous legal liability for violating the TikTok ban during the 75-day period, a future administration could reverse that decision.
The letter also warns that one of the potential solutions proposed by Trump – Oracle taking a small stake in the company and being responsible for safeguarding the data of US users – would not be compliant with the law.
The senators urge Trump to work with Congress to legally extend the deadline.
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