Biden Administration, TikTok Agree To Drop Lawsuit

Under the U.S. President Joe Biden administration, a lawsuit from the President Donald Trump era attempting to ban TikTok from American shores won’t be going forward, CNN reported.

A filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia stated TikTok and the government have agreed to drop the suit, the report stated.

This comes as Biden has moved away from Trump’s actions targeting the popular social media app. In place of Trump’s 2020 executive order targeting TikTok, Biden has implemented a broader one addressing any apps linked to foreign adversaries, including China, according to CNN.

Now that Trump’s proposed ban of TikTok from app stores is not happening, TikTok is looking to negotiate with the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investments to address security concerns for U.S. users’ data, CNN reported.

PYMNTS previously reported on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s decision to rescind the TikTok ban as of June 16. The Federal Register, which is the official log of government actions, announced the new change via a posting on its website.

“Pursuant to Executive Order 14034 of June 9, 2021 (Protecting Americans’ Sensitive Data from Foreign Adversaries), this document confirms that the Secretary of Commerce has rescinded two actions issued under now-revoked Executive Orders: the September 18, 2020 Identification of Prohibited Transactions related to TikTok, published on September 24, 2020, and the September 18, 2020 Identification of Prohibited Transactions related to WeChat filed for public inspection on September 18, 2020 and withdrawn before publication,” the posting stated.

The ban of TikTok and WeChat, which was a heavily discussed topic in late 2020, would have seen users of the popular apps unable to access updates or maintenance. Trump had been pushing the ban as a way to combat what he said was a glut of foreign enemies “increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in information and communications technology and services.”