After months of uncertainty over TikTok’s future, it looked like the Trump administration had finally got its act together. Reports suggested that the US government was closing in on a deal with Oracle, the platform already working with TikTok to store US users’ data. While this deal looks great on paper, there’s one glaring issue: it might still leave TikTok illegal.
The TikTok law, entitled the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, has to meet several requirements in order to be considered a “qualified divesture.”
What Legal Requirements Must the Deal Meet?
Per Tech Policy Press, the law requires that TikTok is “no longer being controlled by a foreign adversary.” If ByteDance in China retains a 20% stake in TikTok, that counts as the app remaining under the country’s control. This means the deal would not be in accordance with the law. With Trump throwing around phrases like “joint venture,” things look bad for TikTok.
Per the statute, the app must no longer be “subject to the direction or control” of China. Additionally, the law stipulates that ByteDance’s divesture must include giving up control of TikTok’s algorithm and control over US citizens’ data.
We’ve seen previously that Trump is unafraid to violate the TikTok ban. He issued an executive order after the app went “dark, ” essentially saying that the administration would not enforce the law. The order never erased or impacted the law itself.
What Have Experts Said?
As reported by Politico, Congress has no way to stop the deal if it doesn’t meet the law’s requirements. Alan Rozenshtein, a University of Minnesota Law School professor, told the outlet that “Congress does not have standing to sue.” According to Rozenshtein, members of Congress are only allowed to file a suit if they’re “personally harmed” by the president’s violation of a law’s meaning.
Michael Sobolik, who previously worked with Ted Cruz, told Politico, “The president gets to decide what constitutes a qualified divestiture. That is completely up to him, even though the contours of what needs to happen in a divestiture are spelled out in the law.”
So, what happens next? We should get more news about the TikTok deal around the law’s new April 5 deadline. Even if the deal is illegal, it looks like lawmakers may not have recourse to fight back. That’s good news for creators and bad news for the rule of law.
