News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users. Parent comment

Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by bmelton on Sunday January 19, 2025 @05:42PM (#42762825)
In context, you're both wrong. You're correct that § 2(G)(3)(A)(i) and (ii) explicitly name Bytedance and TikTok [1], so it is not up to presidential discretion to add more apps, but § 2(G)(3)(B)(ii) indicates that it is within the president's discretion to not enforce.

There are some paperwork qualifiers that for certain have not been met (the not-yet president almost certainly could not have briefed Congress as president 30 days prior) -- but they seem trivial to satisfy, and it would be pointless to initiate enforcement actions for an event nobody intends to follow through on

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by speff on Sunday January 19, 2025 @08:25PM (#42763979)
§ 2(G)(3) A/B seem more like OR conditions to me, not AND. I don't think Bytedance can get out of it by the president saying they're not a threat.

[1]: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7521... Ctrl+F "(3) FOREIGN ADVERSARY CONTROLLED APPLICATION"

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by hot_gril on Monday January 20, 2025 @07:37PM (#42774924)
Maybe I'm in over my head, but that's how I interpreted it too. It's annoying how every news source and even Wikipedia doesn't make it clear what this law does.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by speff on Wednesday January 22, 2025 @09:41PM (#42800059)
I'd just recommend reading the full bill. It's not that hard to understand and it's fairly short. I used a GPT to parse sections which seemed a bit complicated
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by JumpCrisscross on Sunday January 19, 2025 @09:15PM (#42764298)
> but § 2(G)(3)(B)(ii) indicates that it is within the president's discretion to not enforce

Wrong.

That § lets the President designate other entities. That’s why we wrote “any of” at the top—Bytedance, TikTok or any of the things the President may designate.

[ Parent | on HN ]