Tony Tan, a Google shareholder, has obtained and published a set of letters the Trump administration sent to multiple tech companies, essentially saying: don’t worry about the law, the president has your back, keep TikTok online.However, Mr.Tan disagrees.
And he’s taking legal action to prove it.A bit of back story The TikTok ban has had more ups and downs than any busy person would care to follow.For today’s news, here’s the part that matters: Towards the end of his term, President Biden signed the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” giving ByteDance until January 19, 2025, to divest TikTok’s U.S.
operations or face a ban.When President Trump took office on January 20, he signed an executive order halting the ban and extending the deadline to April 5.In the interim, the app had been down for a couple of days in the U.S., but access was restored after Trump’s assurance to tech companies that his deadline extension was constitutional.
On April 4, Trump extended the deadline again, this time to June 19.The next day, his team sent letters to tech companies and service providers, assuring them that under his order, they wouldn’t face legal consequences for keeping TikTok online, even if the actual law told them otherwise.These are the letters Tan has now published, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
One of them was sent to Apple, while similar ones were sent to Google, Akamai, Amazon, Digital Realty Trust, Fastly, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Oracle, and LG: What Mr.Tan is saying In a statement provided to 9to5Mac, Mr.Tan says: In other words, he is worried that a future court could rule the president didn’t have the authority to override the law, and that companies might still be held liable for violating it by continuing to host TikTok.
In fact, he has sued Google’s parent company, Alphabet, seeking to investigate why it restored TikTok to the Play Store after Trump’s executive order.He believes the company’s decision could open it up to “hundreds of billions of dollars in liability,” which would also affect shareholders like himself.He is not alone in his concern.
As reported by : For now, what’s clear is that companies like Apple and Google were asked to take the president at his word, and they did.Whether these letters will actually offer lasting protection or just temporary political cover, will likely be a question for future courts.In the meantime, it looks like Mr.
Tan will keep pushing from the sidelines, not just to hold Google accountable, but to make sure that shareholders like him won’t be left holding the bag if things go south.Apple Watch deals on Amazon 40mm Apple Watch SE 2: 24% off at $189 42mm Apple Watch Series 10: 20% off at $319 46mm Apple Watch Series 10: 16% off at $359 49mm Apple Watch Ultra 2: 7% off at $741.89 You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day.Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop.
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