It’s Past Time for Congress to Insist upon Enforcement of Its TikTok Law

It was sound public policy for Congress to ban the Chinese company ByteDance from operating the social media platform TikTok within the United States. Even more importantly, it’s the law. It was passed with broad bipartisan support and upheld by the Supreme Court in January when TikTok challenged it.

The law requires ByteDance to sell TikTok or see it shut down. It allows for a single extension of ByteDance’s deadline up to 90 days provided that the president certifies that there is a serious deal on the table to sell TikTok. The 90 days passed months ago, and there has never been anything close to such a deal, yet President Trump continues to extend it without even a fig leaf of legal support. The current, lawless extension is in place through September 17.