Washington.- President Donald Trump ordered a 75-day postponement of the application of the law that orders the sale of control of TikTok to an American company, to study a long-term solution.
“TikTok is worthless if I don’t approve it,” the president said when signing the order.
The president suggested that he could be open to a joint venture: “I could see a deal where the US gets 50% of TikTok, controls it a little bit, maybe a lot, it depends on them.”
The executive order signed by Trump orders the attorney general and the Department of Justice not to apply sanctions or take any actions aimed at enforcing the law for the next 75 days.
It also directs the Department of Justice to send letters to companies such as Apple, Google and Oracle, which work with TikTok, “affirming that there has been no violation of the statute and that there is no liability for any conduct that occurred during the period specified above.”
Lee: China urges US to ensure ‘fair business environment’ for TikTok
The decision aims to “avoid the abrupt closure” of a platform used by nearly 170 million Americans, while the Government studies a long-term solution.
TikTok stopped working this Saturday in the United States after the Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law passed last year by Congress that forced the platform to separate itself from its parent company, the Chinese company ByteDance, or face closure.
The legislation, approved in April 2024 for national security reasons, gave ByteDance a period of nine months to sell its US operations to a buyer who was not considered an “adversary” of the country and established that, otherwise, it would be banned on January 19 for national security reasons.
One day after the veto came into effect, TikTok restored its service in the United States due to guarantees offered by Trump that sanctions would not be applied.
The law, which forces Google and Apple to remove Tiktok from their app stores, imposes significant economic penalties: companies that continue to support TikTok could face fines of up to $5,000 per user, which could translate into billions of dollars. dollars, given the size of its user base in the United States.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House, Trump stated that the decree gives him the right to “sell or close” Tiktok and added that his Government will make that decision.
Read: Conservative influencers celebrate at TikTok-sponsored Trump inauguration party
This Sunday, on the eve of his inauguration, Trump commented that he would like the United States to assume partial ownership of the platform.
“I would like the United States to have a 50% stake in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands, and allow it to continue growing. Without US approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, maybe trillions,” he wrote on his social network, Truth Social.
With information from EFE, Bloomberg and Reuters.
Follow us on Google News to always stay informed
