Federal courts had already blocked Trump's effort to ban social media platform TikTok from the U.S. and the Biden administration had already paused the government's appeals of those decisions, but now it's official: there will be no ban and no appeal.
The Biden White House has revoked Trump's original order to ban TikTok, but they've also gone a step further and revoked orders to ban several other Chinese-owned platforms not limited to social media.
From Reuters:
Biden's new executive order revokes the WeChat and TikTok orders issued in August, along with another in January that targeted eight other communications and financial technology software applications.
The January order directed officials to ban transactions with eight Chinese apps including Ant Group's Alipay and Tencent Holdings Ltd's QQ Wallet and WeChat pay.
The government appealed judicial orders that had blocked enforcement of Trump's executive orders that sought to ban TikTok and WeChat, but after Biden took office, the U.S. Justice Department asked to pause the appeals.
You will almost certainly recall that the Trump regime never substantiated their claims that TikTok is a threat to national security. They had no evidence to prove that because it was not the real reason why Trump tried to ban the platform.
The Commerce Department followed orders from Trump to ban the platform and tried to find a justification for it after the fact. And Trump ordered the ban because that platform was used to disrupt his high-profile campaign rally (pictured above) in Tulsa, Oklahoma around this time last year. That was the same campaign rally that killed former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain through exposure to COVID-19.
The Biden administration's new orders confirm that there was no substance to Trump's effort because if there was they would not drop the government's appeal. Biden has ordered the Commerce Department to conduct a new investigation of potential threats posed by these platforms, but it's unlikely that will result in a new ban later this year. It's a formality.