Trump is flagrantly breaking the law. No one cares. Here’s why, in pictures.
Understanding the Law
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACAA) was passed by Congress and signed into law on April 24, 2024. It required TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its stake in the app by January 19, 2025, or face a ban from U.S. app stores and internet hosting services.
The law was prompted by national security concerns over the potential for the Chinese government to access user data or influence content via the TikTok algorithm.
Legal Challenges
- TikTok’s lawsuit: ByteDance and TikTok challenged the law, arguing it violated the First Amendment rights of Americans.
- Supreme Court decision: On January 17, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the act, effectively clearing the way for the ban to proceed.
Trump Delays in Enforcement
- Initial executive order: On January 20, 2025, following the Supreme Court’s ruling, President Trump issued an executive order that temporarily delayed enforcement of the ban for 75 days, preventing TikTok from going offline.
- Subsequent extensions: The Trump administration has since issued multiple extensions, pushing back the deadline to allow for negotiations. The most recent extension was on September 16, 2025, further delaying enforcement
Trump Deal
- Potential deal with China: Amid the legal and political maneuvering, U.S. and Chinese officials have been discussing a “framework” for a deal to resolve the ownership issues.
- Algorithmic concerns: A key sticking point is the law’s requirement that ByteDance divest not just its financial stake but also intellectual property like the content recommendation algorithm. Chinese officials have suggested a deal that would license the algorithm, potentially conflicting with the law’s requirements.
Trump announced a deal on Monday. He provided no details.
We still have no details.
Suspiciously Vague Announcement
Gizmodo notes Trump Gives Suspiciously Vague Update on TikTok Deal
On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that negotiators from the U.S. and China had agreed on a “framework” for a deal that would give an American company control of TikTok. And while most people assumed we would hear about the details this week, we’ve arrived at Friday, and it’s still unclear what might be happening with the video-sharing platform.
“I just completed a very productive call with President Xi of China. We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal,” Trump wrote in his typically unusual style.
“I also agreed with President Xi that we would meet at the APEC Summit in South Korea, that I would go to China in the early part of next year, and that President Xi would, likewise, come to the United States at an appropriate time,” Trump continued.
“The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC!” Trump wrote.
And that’s it. No proclamation about some U.S.-based company like Oracle taking charge of TikTok. No bragging about how he got a great deal that would’ve been impossible under Biden. He didn’t even hint at the U.S. government taking a stake and how much control he would be able to wield under such an arrangement. All we got was “appreciate the TikTok approval,” which leaves so many questions.
Trump signed another order this week extending the deadline until Dec. 16. None of this seems to be legal, according to most legal experts. You can’t just ignore a law indefinitely and sign executive orders to make it happen. When Congress passes a law, it needs to be implemented. As Politico put it, “the whole situation has no apparent precedent in the annals of American law.”
It’s not even clear that any deal currently being cooked up would adhere to the 2024 law as written. Chinese officials said this week that the deal they’re working on includes China “licensing the [TikTok] algorithm and other intellectual property rights,” according to the Financial Times. But it’s precisely that algorithm that the law passed by Congress is worried about for “national security” reasons.
And it sounds like any deal would also require U.S. users to migrate to a new app, though we don’t know what that would look like either. Trump only pulled a 180 on TikTok back in March 2024 during the lead-up to the presidential election. And he insists that it’s because young people on the platform love him. It’s surely a coincidence that Republican mega-donor Jeff Yass, a billionaire with a big investment in ByteDance, was reportedly in Trump’s ear right around the same time.
What’s next? We don’t know. But given the vibes coming from the White House right now, a deal doesn’t feel imminent. That could change, but there’s no real pressure to get something done quickly, now that Trump has extended the deadline again until December. And if he’s extended it a fourth time with no real pushback from Congress, there’s no reason to think he couldn’t go for number five.
What Trump Wants from a TikTok Deal with China
The New Yorker commented “The Chinese-owned social-media app was banned by Congress because of national-security concerns, but the President seems more interested in leveraging its future for his personal gain.”
That should be clear to everyone. But no one seems to care.
The Zoomers and Millennials don’t want to lose access to TikTok. and Trump does not want to upset large blocks of voters.
Social Media Users
Please consider TikTok User Statistics
TikTok, the world famous video-sharing app, made its international debut in September 2016.
Fast forward to now, TikTok is the fastest growing social media app in the world.
TikTok has accomplished in just over 4 years what it took Facebook and Instagram to do in 10 years.
Key Stats
- TikTok currently has 1.5 billion monthly active users worldwide.
- TikTok has been downloaded over 3 billion times since its launch in 2016.
- TikTok and Douyin (TikTok’s name in China) are now in 141 countries out of a possible 155 total countries. That means that they have launched in 91% of all the countries they can possibly be in.
- The TikTok app has been translated into 39 different languages.
- In 2023, ByteDance was valued at about $200 billion. In the second quarter of 2023, ByteDance’s revenues surged to an impressive $29 billion, marking a 40% year-on-year increase compared to the corresponding quarter in 2022.
- The majority of content creators on TikTok are between 18 and 24 years old.
About 19% of TikTok’s global audience consists of men aged between 18 and 24 years, while 18% of the platform’s users in the same age group are women.It’s double the size of Snapchat and quickly catching up to Instagram.
What’s more?
There are 4.8 billion internet users in the world and 20.83% of them use TikTok.
As of January 2024, the United States was the country with the largest TikTok audience by far, with almost 136 million users engaging with the popular social video platform.
There are no TikTok users in China, as the platform is banned there. Instead, China has its own version of the app called Douyin, which had 766 million daily active users as of September 2025.
Trump does no want to upset 136 million TikTok users in the US. There is nothing else to understand.
Trump cares more about that than any security concerns.
Security Concerns
TikTok’s main security issues stem from its ownership by the Chinese company ByteDance, which raises concerns that the Chinese government could compel it to share U.S. user data, potentially for spying or blackmail. Other issues include the platform’s extensive data collection, which critics say is excessive and may include sensitive information beyond what users share, and the risk of malicious software or influence operations being spread through its platform. While TikTok has implemented measures to store U.S. user data on U.S. soil, the core concerns about the potential for data access and manipulation persist.
Congress passed the PAFACAA on April 24, 2024. It required TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its stake in the app by January 19, 2025, or face a ban from U.S. app stores and internet hosting services.
TikTok also had to give up it’s algorithm, something I said would never happen.
House of Representatives Vote
- Total vote: 360 to 58.
Republicans: 197 voted “Yea” and 15 voted “Nay”
Democrats: 155 voted “Yea” and 50 voted “Nay”
Senate Vote
- Total vote: 79 to 18.
- A full party breakdown for the specific bill is not available because it was merged with other bills.
Where Are the Howls?
- Republicans are not howling.
- Democrats are not howling.
- Trump is not howling about what a great deal he made.
As Gizmodo notes “It’s surely a coincidence that Republican mega-donor Jeff Yass, a billionaire with a big investment in ByteDance, was reportedly in Trump’s ear right.”
It seems to me they should have thought about this before passing the damn act in the first place,
But if Congress has changed its mind, it should rescind the act. But no one wants to admit they made a mistake the first time.
Meh?
I never thought much of the alleged security concerns in the first place. I thought the bill was unwise.
The solution at hand is for Trump to blatantly ignore the law. Nearly everyone seems happy with that solution for reasons explained.
Don’t worry, there will be plenty of time for Trump to brag later, no matter what the deal includes.
Political Expediency
In edit, it’s not that they don’t care.
Rather, both parties look the other way on Trump’s flagrant violation of the law because no one in either party wants to upset 136 million TikTok users in the US.
They are all relieved that Trump is doing what he’s doing.
More gross stupidity in the US. What use are personal details of US TikTok users to the Chinese government. As usual a naked anti-com epetive move masquerading as a “national security issue”
Are we missing a post about the H1-B visas? Thought that would be the next topic.
There is no deal.
Correct!
Everything Trump says is pure bullshit…
TikTok will be evermore bursting with praises for Dear Leader.
have you read the PAFACAA? Do you know the context why it past? journalists summaries are rarely accurate. you rarely provide both sides of the issue and stick to liberal sources. Finally, relying on only published sources without providing context as journalist do adds no value.
meanwhile: WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s goal of re-occupying Bagram air base in Afghanistan might end up looking like a re-invasion of the country, requiring more than 10,000 troops as well as deployment of advanced air defenses, current and former U.S. officials say.
Trump, speaking to reporters on Thursday during a trip to London, said “we want that base back” and cited what he called its strategic location near China.
Send Eric, Jared and Don Jr., then.
A quick search on Grok indicated Canadian Kevin O’Leary has expressed interest in buying Tik Tok in early 2025….
What do you mean we, blogman?
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/the-pendulum-swings-free-speech-falls
Sounds like they fear the Chinese might do exactly what our own social media companies are being used for.
Yes. And I’m far less worried about a gov with no jurisdiction over me (china) than ones that do…and shown me why scifi authors are so good at “conceiving” dystopian worlds.
I got a Yandex e-mail account years ago specifically for this reason. But nowadays, given the pervasiveness of surveillance, I just assume that the US and Russia share data on their respective citizens behind the scenes in a reciprocal manner. Same with China, despite the outward hostilities.
I think “China” was a red herring. The real reason (as someone else here already mentioned) was the US security state and its censorship apparatus has no control over TikTok.
And there was another big reason. Look who is taking over TikTok. Oracle, Silver Lake, and Andreessen Horowitz. Censorship of Gaza-related videos incoming.
The fear with the last decade of Chinese security scares (cutting cables, tapping into cables with their submarines, back doors, malicious software distribution, state compulsion to share data, etc) are all confessions of what our side is up to.
What they’re really afraid of is not that the Chinese will copy our behavior, but that it would deprive us of the ability to continue doing all the illegal malicious stuff the powers that be consider their birthright.
Allegations always remain vague and dwell in the land of the possible.
No concrete technical proof ever surfaces.
Yes. There’s a saying now that “every allegation is a confession”, with these western rulers. Aka projection.
Empire of Lies.
This bill is definitive proof that extortion of foreign businesses is A-okay by both parties now. Let’s call this what it is: extorting a business because we don’t want China muscling in on our definitely not state owned tech monopoly.
Behavior like this is something I’d have expected to see from Soviet Russia, not the United States. Yet here we are, why? Simple answer: tech is all we have left.
And as others have noted already, this is a transparent attempt from the powers that be to erase images of Gaza and gestapo crackdowns. It’s blatant undermining of the idea of a public square by going “well you can always go out in the woods and shout! Just don’t do it in the corporate owned public square or we’ll have the corporation kick you out! And if the corporation doesn’t… We just turn them into a state owned business!”
All animals are equal ect ect. Probably time to start planning for trouble with the way this is going.
always with the 2nd thoughts
WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s goal of re-occupying Bagram air base in Afghanistan might end up looking like a re-invasion of the country, requiring more than 10,000 troops as well as deployment of advanced air defenses, current and former U.S. officials say.
Trump, speaking to reporters on Thursday during a trip to London, said “we want that base back” and cited what he called its strategic location near China.
“Did I say I was ending forever wars? What I meant was we’ll be forever working on ending wars!”
Trump’s undersecretary for defense policy, Elbridge Colby, recognizes the pointlessness of continuing the US proxy war against Russia, but only because he wants to gear up for war against China. It’s like everyone involved in US policy is Curtis Lemay.
Ha! Jimmy Dore says “No matter who you vote for you get John McCain.”
May Lemay and McCain both be rotting in hell. But, Lemay had balls and brains and wasn’t an “inverse ‘ace’” like McCain. I guess Lemay would be an improvement
Let’s get real here.
TikTok could’ve been banned long ago, like India had done in 2020, but the powers-that-be were A-OK with youngsters dancing around saying things like Trump is evil, Black Lives Matter, we stand for LGTBQ rights, etc.
Everything changed when TikTok users started sharing images of the what was happening in Gaza and that turned a whole demographic of westerners against Israel. Instead of some bubblehead on Fox, BBC, MSNBC, or CNN telling you what they want you to know, you were shown the unedited atrocities being committed in Gaza. Hence why Israel is now as popular as crotch-rot on the world stage.
So who’s buying TikTok? A consortium headed by Larry Ellison, one of the biggest Zionist supporters. Soon you’ll be seeing propaganda about how Israel are the ever-suffering victims and the Middle Eastern Arabs are barbarians on that platform.
“In June, 29% of Republicans said the country was heading in the wrong direction. That number is now 51%.”
https://apnorc.org/projects/pessimism-about-the-direction-of-the-country-is-growing-among-republicans/
Trump’s too afraid to force Ukraine to take Russia’s offer of peace. He’s too afraid to stop sending offensive weapons to Israel for their holocaust in Gaza. He forced through the Big Boondoogle Bill with its $1T “defense” spending and worsening deficit. He bombed Iran (once, so far). His tariffs are arbitrary and capricious. He’s withheld the Epstein files and ordered his FBI picks (and AG) to emit obvious lies about it. Meanwhile the US is doing regime change operations in Nepal and elsewhere. The only thing he’s done that most people would agree with is closing the southern border as much as possible.
“He never started a war”, some retards tell me.
I don’t disagree that Trump is breaking the law. I would just like to point out that law against TikTok wasn’t passed just because a Chinese entity could access private data of Americans, but because the American security state couldn’t access that data. The American social media companies, tech and internet companies all give the intelligence community a back door into everything they do.
#TACO ??
If we don’t know the details then how do we know whether he is breaking the law or not? When we get the details, and we will, then the courts will decide if the law was broken and not before.
Huh? Reading comprehension?
Congress passed a law that required ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok by January 2025. The US Supreme Court upheld that law’s constitutionality.
It’s up to the Executive Branch to uphold the constitutional laws of the land. Does ByteDance still hold its stake in TikTok today in September 2025? Then the Executive (Trump) is breaking the law of the land. This one is pretty straight forward.
Does that straighten it out for you?
I think that overly simplifies the situation. Someone with “standing’ has to claim a harm for the judicial branch to provide a path to a remedy. But the remedy has to be enforced. Trump may be ignorant of the processes, but his lawyers and advisors are not. Violating the law is theoretical until there is enforcement: compare international court decisions; sound and fury signifying nothing.
I am sure his lawyers know the law in this.
You just confirmed what I said. We don’t know if ByteDance still holds its stake or not so we don’t know if Trump is breaking the law or not. It should be clear to you.
Your hubris is only matched by your obtuseness, when you purposely look past the obvious to put out your own political POV. Everyone here sees it; that’s why your downvotes always outnumber your upvotes.
Congress passed the law outlawing ByteDance owning TikTok 1.5 years ago. That law took effect 9 months ago, when the Supreme Court also verified its legality.
Even if TACO gets a deal out of his current whisperings, as of last week ByteDance owned TikTok – 9 months after the legal deadline. Our President and leader of the Executive Branch refused to follow and uphold this law.
Were you OK as well with Biden supposedly allowing foreign citizens to ‘freely’ flow into the US against Congress’ laws of national border protection? LOL I didn’t think so, but it’s OK for your guy.
You said it was uncertain and I said it was uncertain too so what is your problem? Mish said he might have broken the law. I said since we don’t know terms yet we don’t know. You said the same thing and then you attack me for saying the same thing Mish and you said.
As for getting down votes, they come from people like you so I don’t mind them at all.
Since when have US governments upheld following the laws or constitutional requirements. Did Biden uphold the law requiring securing the border? Or how many laws don’t uphold the requirements of the 2nd A?
The courts won’t decide anything because there will no case.