Newly revealed documents, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, shed light on the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) efforts to reassure major technology companies regarding a controversial law targeting TikTok. These letters, sent by the DOJ to tech giants such as Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and others, aimed to alleviate concerns about potential violations of the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act." The FOIA request was filed by Zhaocheng Anthony Tan, a Google shareholder who had previously sued for the release of these very documents.

The "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act" was designed to compel the sale of TikTok from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, citing significant national security concerns. Under the provisions of this law, US companies faced the severe consequence of a ban on TikTok from their app stores and other platforms, or the imposition of hundreds of billions of dollars in fines for non-compliance.

The core content of the uncovered letters reveals explicit promises from the Department of Justice. Both Attorney General Pam Bondi and her predecessor, Acting Attorney General James McHenry III, assured recipient companies that they would be released from responsibility for any violations of the Act. Furthermore, the DOJ pledged to actively intervene to prevent any other entity from attempting to enforce penalties against these companies, a commitment that includes filing amicus briefs or directly intervening in litigation should such attempts arise.

The timeline of these communications indicates a strategic effort to manage the law's impact. Acting Attorney General McHenry III dispatched the initial round of letters on January 30th, just ten days after a significant executive order signed by President Trump that delayed the enforcement of the law. This law had technically taken effect the day before Trump's inauguration. Subsequent follow-up letters were sent by Attorney General Bondi, including a round dated April 5th, which coincided with President Trump's extension of the enforcement delay until mid-June. A third extension, issued by Trump, pushed the expiration to mid-September, maintaining the pressure for ByteDance to complete the sale of TikTok to a non-Chinese owner.

The comprehensive list of recipients underscores the broad reach of the DOJ's assurances, encompassing operators of app stores, cloud hosting services, and other critical infrastructure providers. These included prominent names such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Akamai Technologies, Digital Realty Trust, Fastly, T-Mobile US, Oracle, and LG Electronics USA. Despite these extensive measures and ongoing delays, it remains legally uncertain whether any of the executive orders or the underlying law have a valid basis in law.