Big Tech Quietly Demanded Immunity for Working With TikTok
After Congress banned Big Tech from working with TikTok, major tech firms like Apple and Google privately requested the Trump administration assure them they wouldn't be prosecuted under the law. The president happily granted them full amnesty.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Apple CEO Tim Cook during a meeting with business leaders at the US Ambassador’s Residence on October 28, 2025, in Tokyo, Japan. (Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)
As the White House worked to secure the sale of TikTok’s US business to President Donald Trump’s allies, Big Tech firms received personal promises from the Justice Department that they wouldn’t be prosecuted for violating a new national security law by hosting the Chinese social media platform.
But it wasn’t enough — new documents, which were obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by the Public Integrity Project and provided exclusively to the Lever, show Alphabet, Apple, and Microsoft successfully pressured federal prosecutors to issue additional assurances granting them total amnesty for hosting and conducting business for the app.
In 2024, in response to concerns that the Chinese government could access data from TikTok — a social media app owned by Beijing firm ByteDance — to spy on Americans, Congress passed the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which prohibited US firms from hosting overseas social platforms deemed a national security threat.
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