Apple, Google and Oracle face an $850 billion liability due to Trump's TikTok decision
Just about everyone has forgotten that April 5th is an important date in the U.S. That is when President Donald Trump's executive order telling the Justice Department not to enforce the law banning TikTok in the U.S. for 75 days expires. Trump could have followed the provision in the bill that allowed for a 90-day extension to allow TikTok owner ByteDance to divest the app, but instead he decided to sign the executive order.
Apple, Google, and Oracle could be on the hook for a liability totaling $850 billion
Because the president decided to use an executive order to delay the TikTok ban instead of following the law and extending the deadline, he might have put Apple, Google, and Oracle on the hook to pay a liability that could be valued as high as $850 billion. Apple and Google could be fined for returning TikTok to their respective app stores and Oracle provides cloud services for the app. Apple and Google returned TikTok to the App Store and Play Store respectively on February 14th after both removed the app on January 19th prior to Trump's inauguration and his executive order giving TikTok a 75 day "get out of jail card."
Trump's executive order told the DOJ not to prosecute TikTok or any company that helped it stay online during the 75 days. But it is not the same as making the app legal in the U.S. which is why Apple, Google, and Oracle still face that monstrous $850 billion liability.
TikTok went dark on January 19th but returned the next day after the president signed an executive order. | Image credit-PhoneArena
On Monday, three Senate Democrats wrote a letter to President Trump. Senators Edward Markey (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) reminded the president about the temperature of the hot water that the three aforementioned American companies might find themselves in. And it also notes that TikTok's future in the U.S. right now is determined by how much financial liability Apple, Google, and Oracle can face.
"Neither you nor former President Joe Biden chose to trigger the 90-day extension of the deadline in the statute.2 Instead, in an executive order, 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 seriousquestions 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"-Letter to President Trump from Senator Edward Markey (D-MA), Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
The Senators also noted in their letter than the statute of limitations for violations of the Act is five years which means that a future administration could reverse Trump's executive order and force Apple, Google, and Oracle to pay hundreds of billions in fines. Originally, Oracle decided to continue providing TikTok with cloud services even while Apple and Google threw TikTok off their app stores for three weeks. It wasn't until the DOJ wrote in a letter that it was committed to not enforcing the law that TikTok was returned to the App Store and Google Play Store.
The letter warns the president that if he continues to use executive orders to push back the deadline for ByteDance to divest itself of TikTok, it "will require Oracle, Apple, Google, and other companies to continue risking ruinous legal liability, a difficult decision to justify in perpetuity." In addition, the trio warn the president that if he agrees to a deal that would allow Oracle to buy a small stake in TikTok which would keep TikTok subscribers' data firmly in American hands, "The deal "would almost certainly not satisfy the Act's requirements around a qualified divestiture."
A bill in Congress blocked by the Senate GOP would extend TikTok's deadline to October 16, 2025
Instead, the three Senate Democrats ask Trump to work with Congress where a bill has been introduced called the "Extend the TikTok Deadline Act." This legislation would, if passed, extend the deadline giving ByteDance until October 16, 2025 to divest itself of TikTok. The letter asks President Trump to instruct Senate Republicans to pass the bill as they have previously blocked its progress.
The three Senate Democrats wrote, "Without any further action from Congress, the 170 million Americans that rely on TikTok will continue to face uncertainty about TikTok’s future. Creators will continue to fear that the platform could disappear at any moment. This situation is unfair and unworkable. We urge you to stand up for TikTok’s users and use your immense influence over congressional Republicans to demand a long-term solution to the TikTok ban."
President Trump led an effort to ban TikTok during his first term and tried to broker the sale of the short-form video app to U.S. companies like Oracle, and Walmart. But possibly thanks to his 19-year old son Barron's ability to have his finger on the pulse of America's teens, Trump was able to use TikTok to become, in his own words, "A TikTok star. This helped him gain the support of young teen voters who helped return him to the White House. Now, the president loves the platform and would like to see it remain available to Americans to use, but under U.S. ownership.
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