TikTok gets a 75-day breather in the US as Trump suspends ban

On his inauguration day, US president Donald Trump has signed an executive order which suspends the ban on TikTok. Trump in the executive order said, “I hereby order the Attorney General not to take any action on behalf of the United States to enforce the Act for 75 days from the date of this order, to permit my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course of action with respect to TikTok.”

Furthermore, Trump also directed that no action should be taken against the likes of Apple, Google and others. The Justice Department has been directed “take no action to enforce the Act or impose any penalties against any entity for any noncompliance with the Act”.

However, the TikTok app still remains missing from Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The law — under which TikTok was removed — says that app stores can be fined close to $5,000 per user. Taking into account TikTok’s 170 million user base in the US, the fine could have gone up to $850 billion. Google and Apple — even Amazon, Microsoft removed it from their app stores — aren’t taking any chances.

Trump’s executive order still doesn’t guarantee that the likes of Google and Apple won’t be fined. It remains to be seen if Google and Apple allow the app back on their app stores.