Ban on TikTok and Trump’s executive order have created a dilemma for the tech company.

For more than six years, Amazon Web Services, the world’s largest cloud computing company, provided technical support to deliver TikTok videos to millions of Americans.
But over the weekend, Amazon faced a dilemma. A new law banning TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, was taking effect in the United States. Tech companies were barred from distributing and updating it or face financial penalties. At the same time, newly elected President Donald J. Trump was telling tech companies that he planned to stop enforcement of the law with an executive order.
Just hours before the ban took effect, Amazon appeared to be in compliance with the law, according to a New York Times review of the way TikTok handles web traffic. Instead, Massachusetts-based company Akamai Technologies, which was already helping deliver TikTok videos to phones, took on more technical assistance.
The change, which was picked up by digital forensics conducted by The Times, was one of a series of small moves behind the scenes that showed how tech companies have diverged in their approach to the TikTok ban.
Apple and Google also chose to comply with the law. They swiftly removed TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps from their app stores. But Oracle, another tech giant, was still processing and serving TikTok user data. Akamai and Fastly, which speeds up processing times for TikTok videos, were still doing so.
The controversy highlights the dilemma that the TikTok ban has forced major US tech companies: risk alienating an hawkish president who made his support for TikTok an extremely public part of his early policymaking, or Risked breaking federal law and faced fines up to billions of dollars. , Several legal experts said it was unclear whether Mr. Trump’s executive order protects companies from the law’s monetary penalties or potential lawsuits.
“On one hand, you have a huge theoretical liability of up to $850 billion and on the other hand, you have the potential benefits of complying with Trump’s wishes and being in his good graces,” said Neil Suri, an analyst at Capstone. Policy research firm.
Tech companies assessed that risk differently. Apple did not believe Mr. Trump’s executive order would go far enough to waive its responsibility to follow the law, according to two people who spoke to Apple representatives about its plans but declined to speak publicly. Was not allowed. Google reached a similar decision, said one of these people, who also spoke to its representatives, and a person familiar with the company’s thinking.
Oracle and others were hesitant to violate the law under the Biden administration, said two people involved in their work over the weekend, who were not authorized to speak publicly — a key reason the app took a half-day over the weekend. Stopped working when the ban went into effect.
But he believed the promise of Mr. Trump’s executive order provided new power, prompting him to help relaunch the app in the United States, the people said.
Amazon, Fastly and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment. Google, Apple, Oracle and Akamai declined to comment.
The various responses appear to be motivated by money, politics, and fear.
Apple and Google were under intense scrutiny in the weeks before TikTok was banned. They control the software that powers millions of American smartphones.
They also have a financial interest in the app, as they benefit from the use of TikTok’s in-app payment services. Apple made $354 million from TikTok last year, while Google made $63 million, according to AppFigures, a market research firm that focuses on the app industry. The company said this is primarily through digital coins on TikTok, which users can purchase and gift to creators of their choice.
But removing the app would be consistent with the positions Apple and Google have taken in the past to comply with the laws of the countries where they operate around the world.
And it was likely that TikTok could survive for several months without their support. Over the past few years, TikTok has moved most of the app’s operations to servers primarily run by Oracle, so it would be less dependent on smartphone software, said Ariel Michaeli, founder of AppFigures. He said it had also updated the app in the days before the ban, making the latest version available at the last possible moment.
Both Oracle and Akamai told investors that they would lose significant sales and profits if they stopped hosting and distributing TikTok content.
They also play an important role in ensuring that the TikTok app is operational. If they stop working with TikTok, the app won’t work and there will be an uproar. Much of the Internet exploded on Saturday and Sunday when TikTok went down for a short period of time.
Oracle also has a particularly close relationship with Mr Trump and TikTok. The company’s founder and chief technology officer Larry Ellison joined Mr. Trump on Tuesday to announce a new $100 billion artificial intelligence initiative. At the event, Mr Trump mentioned that Elon Musk or Oracle could buy TikTok and asserted his “right to make a deal”.
Oracle also works with TikTok to store sensitive US user data and is in talks with TikTok to help review the company’s video recommendations in the United States as part of a broader security plan.
Amazon’s role was small but important. It was hosting a key piece of data, called Domain Name Service records, that directs millions of web browsers and smartphone apps to TikTok servers.
But the consequences of violating the law, which was passed with broad bipartisan support in Congress and unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court, could be painful. Legal experts say Oracle and other companies could open themselves up to new liability by relying on the executive order. Mr. Trump could change his mind or selectively enforce the law against companies that fall out of favor, he says, and a future administration could later impose financial penalties under the law’s timelines.
Tom Cotton, the Republican senator from Arkansas and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called some major tech companies last week to tell them they need to follow the law. He said on May face catastrophic liability.
Senator John Thune, Republican and Majority Leader of South Dakota, Said This week that “the law is the law” and “it must be followed.”
A group of TikTok users or social media companies like Meta or Snap could also bring lawsuits challenging the executive order. Users could argue that the U.S. government was inadequately protecting their data by failing to enforce the law, Capstone analysts wrote, making this the most likely type of lawsuit to emerge.
“Oracle is calculating that the chances of them being held liable are very low,” Mr. Suri of Capstone said. “Obviously, Apple and Google haven’t made that calculation. It’s a case of them weighing the risk-reward separately.”
David McCabe And Nico Grant Contributed to the reporting.
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