TikTok, tariffs, and trials: Everything happening in tech policy in April

With the date of selling Tiktok on April 5, Americans returned to the place where they were standing before the original deadline in January: watching anxious to see if a large application is banned on social media. But this is far from the only big event that we will see next month. April is filled with important turns in long-term technical policy stories-some of which may change the industry, while others are at risk of fading.

It was the first and a half months of President Donald Trump’s second period depending on the technology industry, which faces real challenges despite a great rest to Trump. After the absolute FTC Commissioners, Doug’s dismantling of the federal government, and constantly delayed definitions, the next few weeks may be unusually busy. The deadline of Trump allows her to slip, such as those planned for a long time, such as those that cover Tiktok, new tariffs, and a pair of anti -monopoly cases that include apples and dead.

Here’s everything you need to know to prepare.

Trump said he was deliberately chosen on the second of April during the April Fools’ day because it is “a little fabulous”, but it is still wise to expect what is unexpected for taxes on imported goods. The official order issued last week shows a 25 percent tariff on car imports, which will be in effect at 12:01 am on April 3. He also threatened to implement:

Trump’s tariff fluctuated and stopped amid the reaction and discussions with foreign leaders, but the deadline in early April vehicle imports to the United States has been held so far. Trump has promised a 25 percent permanent tariff for cars and trucks that are imported to the country, while the mutual tariff aims to alleviate what his administration considers imbalances with commercial partners.

The car tariff is expected to apply to both foreign manufacturers and American car companies that make vehicles abroad and import them to the United States. Experts expect that the cost will eventually raise the prices of consumers who buy new cars.

April 5: Tiktok ban … or extension

Tiktok is still legally required to get rid of its mother company by atizedance, as is the case with the original deadline in January, it runs out around the clock before the ban begins.

Trump has signed an executive order delaying his first day in office, and promised not to impose Americans’ laws from requests for foreign opponents against TIKTOK service providers – including companies such as Oracle, Akamai, Amazon Web Services, Apple and Google – for 75 days. This was already doubtful, given that the law that requires the Chinese Tiktok owner to strip him to work in the United States is already in effect and was supported by the Supreme Court. Apple and Google affected Tiktok to their application stores until Prosecutor Bam Bondi sent them a letter confirming that they will be immune from legal consequences under the Trump administration if they do so.

Trump promised the Tiktok sale agreement before the deadline, but the details are still mysterious. It is still completely possible to expand the deadline simply again, in an attempt to maintain the status quo while the deal is supposed to come out. But with the Senate Democrats warning, the repeated extensive extensions are left to the service providers in Tiktok are increasingly at risk – the law of statute of limitations extends to the past, and they risk hundreds of billions of fines to challenge the action. Apple, AWS, Google, Akamai, Fastly and Oracle did not respond to the suspension requests.

Instead, Trump may provide the details of the deal (no matter how vague) by the deadline. Many competitors threw their hat in the circuit to take the hands of Tiktok from the hands of Bytedance, including the Ph.Kire Frank McCourt project freedom and confusion.

Oracle is said to be in a pioneering position to partnership with Tiktok to ensure that American user data is not accessed by the Chinese government – but the reported details appear just like Project Texas, which was previously rejected by US officials as a very porous to protect US national security. It is not clear that this will be a sword with the legal requirements for abstraction, and even the Supreme Republicans of the Committee of the Mukhtar of the House of Representatives in China have warned that “the bytedance should be fully controlled by Tiktok and has no opinion on its operations; and it is not possible for data, content or participating algorithms.” There is also an issue whether the Chinese government will agree to allow any copy of the sale to happen.

Essentially, based on the options currently on the table, we will likely see the beginning of another legal battle around Tiktok.

April 14: FTC V. Meta Start

FTC filed antimatics claims against Meta in late 2020, when he was still known as Facebook, and the two sides will finally meet court on April 14 to start the trial.

For several weeks, Judge James Bouasberg will hear a testimony on whether dead are monopolizing the personal social networking market illegally, in part due to his Instagram and WhatsApp operations, which the Federal Trade Committee claims huge competitors. If the government agrees that dead had broken the law, both sides will return later to find out what to do this – including, most likely, relaxing the acquisitions.

It was a rocky issue for FTC, throughout the first period of Trump, when the original lawsuit was filed with the support of the Commissioner for Minority Democrats and the head of the Republican Agency. This first complaint – along with a separate lawsuit filed by the 48th judge from the state and the region’s lawyer – by the judge.

But Boasberg left the FTC option to try again. The agency filed a modified complaint during the Biden administration during the era of Democratic President Lin Khan, seeking to resolve concerns about the initial complaint. The result was sufficient to pay the lawsuit forward. In November 2024, after Boasberg mostly denied the meta proposal to dismiss, he decided that the case would be transferred to trial. Now, this trial will start with the return of FTC under Republican control.

April 22: Google’s search treatments begin

Also in the provincial court in the capital, the second phase of the Google Search Monopoly trial begins next month. Judge Amit Mihita spent last summer that Google had monopolized the public search market illegally, as well as the text advertising market for search. Now, Google and the Ministry of Justice will spend two weeks in discussing the changes that the judge must impose on treating the damage caused by illegal monopoly (description of Google Appeals).

At the end of the Biden Administration, the Ministry of Justice said that the appropriate treatments will include forcing Google to rotate its browser in Chrome – a major access point for search engines – the transfer of data that makes the search results very strong, and prohibiting exclusion deals such as its millions of dollars with Apple. After the Trump administration took over, the Ministry of Justice maintained many of the things it asks, although it has a few amended, including allowing Google Pay Apple not related to research. Mihata said it aims to issue a decision taken by August.

Apple is not a party to the case, but she fought to play a larger role in the treatment phase because she fears that her interests will not be adequately represented by Google. But the Appeals Court agreed with Mihata that Apple will have to settle to deposit summaries to explain its point of view, rather than playing a more active role in the trial.