7 Other Times the U.S. Stupidly Tried to Ban TikTok | Page 6 of 7

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Donald Trump Tried and Failed to Block TikTok via Executive Order

Photo: Tom Pennington — Photo: Tom Pennington (Getty Images)

Collective memories about politics are notoriously myopic, but anyone paying attention can’t help but feel like it’s Groundhog day. Many of the exact same calls for TikTok bans and forced sales already happened years ago under the Trump Administration. The recently indicted former president passed an executive order back in April 2020 attempting to halt all transactions between US companies and ByteDance and Tencent which own TikTok and WeChat respectively.

Trump tried to invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to enforce the order, but multiple judges quickly ruled the president “ likely exceeded IEEPA’s express limitations

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