Here are the letters that let Apple and Google ignore the TikTok ban

Greater than six months after TikTok was banned, we nonetheless do not know precisely what its destiny within the US will likely be. However we do have new perception into the authorized wrangling that has allowed Apple, Google and different platforms to proceed to help the app.

For those who keep in mind, TikTok was solely “banned” for a matter of hours shortly earlier than President Donald Trump took workplace in January and of the regulation. The app’s service was promptly restored January 19, 2025, however the app did not return to Apple and Google’s app shops till February 13. Reporting on the time advised the businesses had lingering issues about potential legal responsibility for working afoul of the Defending Individuals from Overseas Adversary Managed Purposes Act.

Again in February, Axios and others reported that the Justice Division had given “assurances” to tech platforms that they would not be penalized for violating the regulation. Now, we all know precisely what Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi advised the companied as letters despatched to Apple, Google, Amazon, Oracle and different companies have been made public. The letters have been disclosed in a Freedom of Info Act Request made by Tony Tan, a software program engineer and Google shareholder the search big for not complying with the TikTok ban.

In a letter dated January 30, 2025, Bondi tells Apple and Google that “the President has decided that an abrupt shutdown of the TikTok platform would intrude with the execution of the President’s constitutional duties to maintain the nationwide safety and international affairs of america.” It goes on to state that Apple and Google “could proceed to supply companies to TikTok … with out incurring any authorized legal responsibility.”

A followup later dated April 5, 2025 (the day after Trump gave TikTok 75-day reprieve), Bondi advised the businesses that “the Division of Justice can also be irrevocably relinquishing any claims america may need had towards” them “for the conduct proscribed within the Act through the Coated Interval and Prolonged Coated Interval, with respect to TikTok and the bigger household of ByteDance Ltd. and TikTok, Inc. functions lined below the Act.”

The letters may be learn in full beneath.

The regulation has now been paused since Trump took workplace. Earlier this week, he that particulars about TikTok’s new possession could possibly be made public in “about two weeks.”