Overview

• A FOIA lawsuit by software engineer Tony Tan led to the public release on July 3 of DOJ letters assuring tech firms they would not face penalties for supporting TikTok.
• The correspondence from Acting AG James McHenry III and AG Pam Bondi names ten companies, including Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and others, as fully protected under the immunity assurances.
• Each letter states that the department will irrevocably relinquish any claims against these firms for violating the TikTok ban during the covered period and intervene to prevent third-party enforcement.
• President Donald Trump has extended the ban’s enforcement pause through mid-September to facilitate ongoing negotiations for ByteDance’s sale of TikTok.
• Constitutional experts are disputing the legal validity of the immunity guarantees as TikTok’s U.S. operations remain contingent on a successful divestiture.