Trump Pauses Enforcement of TikTok Divest-or-Ban Law for 75 Days

The TikTok logos on screens in Hong Kong on Jan. 18, 2025. Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order (EO) to pause the enforcement of the divest-or-ban TikTok law for 75 days. This will allow his administration time to determine the best next step with regard to the video app. The endorsement freeze also covers between the original deadline of Jan. 19 and the signing of the EO.

According to a law enacted in April last year, TikTok faces a ban in the United States if it doesn’t separate from its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance.

“I guess I have a warm spot for Tiktok that I didn’t have originally,” Trump said as he signed the EO, crediting TikTok, a platform with many young users, for helping him win over young voters in the 2024 election. He indicated in the EO that he wanted to find a solution “that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans.”

The video app suspended its service for about 14 hours over the weekend as the original divest-or-ban deadline approached on Jan. 19.

On Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social that companies continuing to keep TikTok active would not be penalized. He said he would issue an executive order to delay the deadline on his first day in office. A few hours later, TikTok resumed its service in the early afternoon.

The Supreme Court upheld the divest-or-ban law on Jan. 17. ByteDance brought the case to the highest court after failing to challenge the federal law in a federal appeals court. In April 2024, Congress passed the legislation based on national security concerns and the safety of American user data. Trump’s predecessor President Joe Biden signed it into law.

At a Senate hearing when the bill was still considered on the Hill, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that ByteDance’s algorithm, coupled with the American user data that TikTok collects, would enable influence operations that are “extraordinarily difficult to detect, which is part of what makes the national security concerns represented by TikTok so significant.”

According to China’s counterespionage law, ByteDance must legally hand over its American user data if the Chinese regime’s authorities request it.

TikTok has dismissed the U.S. concerns about its national security, saying there is no evidence of past data sharing between ByteDance and the Chinese communist regime. The company argued that the U.S. government infringed upon the First Amendment rights of TikTok and its hundreds of millions of users.

In its opinion, the Supreme Court said Congress singled out TikTok and ByteDance because the social media platform’s “scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, justify differential treatment to address the Government’s national security concerns.”

“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the court said. “But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”

China’s ruling communist party has said it firmly opposed selling TikTok, citing technology export issues. After the divest-or-ban law was enacted, the regime called on the United States to “stop irrationally suppressing other countries’ enterprises,” state media reported. At the same time, U.S.-based enterprises remain banned in China.

On Monday evening, Trump suggested he might employ tariffs to compel China to approve the sale.

Ben Shapiro, a podcast host and co-founder of Daily Wire, finds the refusal of a sale “telling.”

“They would rather shut it down, which demonstrates precisely what they are—not a for-profit company but a propaganda outlet on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party,” Shapiro told The Epoch Times, referring to TikTok’s parent company ByteDance.

In August 2020, during his first term, Trump issued an executive order banning TikTok over national security concerns. In response, TikTok sued and received a court order blocking it on First Amendment grounds. Deals between Oracle and Walmart to buy a stake in TikTok fell apart in 2021.

On Jan. 19, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he plans to uphold the divest-or-ban law.

“I think we will enforce the law,” he told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” He said he interpreted Trump’s “save TikTok” post on Truth Social as trying to find a deal that would satisfy the legal requirement for the app to stay functioning in the United States.

Similarly, other conservatives see a legitimate national security concern regarding TikTok and that a foreign adversary doesn’t have freedom of speech in America.

Jordan Peterson, author and University of Toronto psychology professor emeritus, told The Epoch Times that “there’s genuine infiltration with regard to TikTok.”

“The idea that the Chinese communists are our friends is a very naïve idea, indeed,” he said.

Andrew Klavan, a conservative political commentator and international bestselling author, said Trump might not want to alienate voters by shutting down TikTok immediately but would have to face the nature of the issue eventually.

“Look, it’s President Trump who taught us to see what the Chinese were doing. Nobody was looking at that before,” Klavan told The Epoch Times.

The high price tag means only a few interested and qualified candidates will be able to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations.

Last time, TikTok survived on its terms, without a sale. This time, it faces a law instead of an executive order.