A trio of United States Senators have sent a letter to President Donald Trump warning that his TikTok ban delay could put Apple, Google, and other tech firms at risk of paying out billions in fines.
Since Trump’s order to extend the TikTok ban delay to April 5, not much action has been taken. Now, that extended deadline is looming and we haven’t seen a firm plan that involves keeping TikTok active in the U.S.
On Monday, Senators Edward Markey (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) sent a letter to the President, telling him that there could be massive penalties related to the delay.
“… 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.”
Trump issued an executive order, instructing the U.S. Department of Justice to not enforce the TikTok ban for 75 days. While the order allowed Apple and Google to return the app to their app stores, it doesn’t quite legalize the app. The app is still illegal, the Justice Department will just not take action enforcing the ban.
The penalties, which the letter claims could be as high as $850 billion, could be levied against Apple, Google, and Oracle.
The letter also notes that the statute of limitation is five years, allowing any President that follows Trump into the Oval Office could reverse any of Trump’s decision on the matter of TikTok, which could penalize the companies in question quite dearly.
The letter also claims Trump’s proposition that Oracle buy a small stake in TikTok “would almost certainly not satisfy the Act’s requirements around a qualified divestiture.”
The letter writers also called on Trump to work with Congress to modify the “Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act” to help prevent TikTok from being turned off in the United States.
As the deadline approaches, it is unclear whether Trump will reach across the aisle to make a deal with Democrats, or whether TikTok will be banned in the U.S.
