I.T. News – January 25, 2025

The recent developments surrounding TikTok have placed major technology companies in a challenging position, caught between adhering to federal law and responding to directives from President Donald Trump.

In April 2024, President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, mandating that ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, divest its U.S. operations by January 19, 2025, due to national security concerns. ByteDance did not comply by the deadline, leading to TikTok's removal from app stores and a suspension of its services in the U.S.

President Trump's Intervention

Upon assuming office on January 20, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order delaying the enforcement of the TikTok ban by 75 days. He also assured tech companies like Apple, Google, and Oracle that they would not face penalties for continuing to support TikTok during this period.

The Dilemma for Tech Companies

This situation presents a complex challenge for tech companies:

• Legal Compliance: The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act remains in effect, and the Supreme Court has upheld its constitutionality. Non-compliance could result in significant legal repercussions.

• Executive Directives: President Trump's executive order provides a temporary reprieve, but its legal standing may be contested, and it does not nullify the existing law.

Companies must navigate this legal ambiguity carefully, balancing adherence to federal law with responsiveness to executive actions.

Industry Response

The tech industry's reaction has been mixed. Some companies have resumed support for TikTok following President Trump's order, while others remain cautious, awaiting further legal clarification.

1 - Tech’s TikTok Dilemma: Follow the Law or President Trump?

New York Times.January 24, 2025

For more than six years, Amazon Web Services, the world’s largest cloud computing company, provided technical support to deliver TikTok videos to tens of millions of Americans.

But over the weekend, Amazon faced a dilemma. A new law was taking effect banning TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, in the United States. Tech companies were barred from distributing and updating it or they would face financial penalties. At the same time, President-elect Donald J. Trump was telling tech companies he planned to pause enforcement of the law with an executive order.

Just hours before the ban took effect, Amazon appeared to comply with the law, according to a New York Times review of the way TikTok’s web traffic is handled. Instead, Akamai Technologies, a Massachusetts-based company that was already helping to deliver TikTok videos to phones, took over more of the technical support.

Apple and Google also chose to follow the law. They swiftly removed TikTok and other apps owned by ByteDance from their app stores. But Oracle, another tech giant, was still processing and serving TikTok user data. Akamai and Fastly, which speed processing times for TikTok videos, were also still doing so.

The schism highlights the dilemma the TikTok ban has forced on major American tech companies: risk alienating a mercurial president who made his support for TikTok an extremely public part of his inaugural policymaking, or risk breaking federal law and face up to billions of dollars in penalties. Several legal experts said it was unclear whether Mr. Trump’s executive order shields companies from the law’s monetary penalties or potential lawsuits.

“On one hand, you have this massive theoretical liability of up to $850 billion and on the other side, you have the potential benefits of complying with Trump’s wishes and being in his good graces,” said Neil Suri, an analyst at Capstone, a policy research firm.

The tech companies made different assessment of that risk. Apple did not believe Mr. Trump’s executive order would be enough to override their responsibility to follow the law. Google reached a similar decision.

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Episode 3922 - Jan 26 - Tiếng Anh - Công nghệ Thông tin – Ngày 25 tháng 1, 2025 - Vina Technology at AI time