US President Donald Trump on Monday, his first day in office, signed an executive order delaying the country's ban on TikTok for 75 days. But whether this step was legal is up in the air.

The ban, signed by the Biden administration and upheld by the Supreme Court, gave the Chinese parent company of ByteDance until Sunday to sell its stake in the popular social media platform or have it outlawed in the US.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have argued that TikTok could be used by the Chinese government to spy on US citizens.

But there are several signs that Trump had the right to break the law.

“Executive orders cannot override existing laws,” said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University's Technology Policy Institute.

The law has a provision that allows for a 90-day extension if sales progress before it takes effect.The app went dark in the US on Saturday evening, but was restored the next day, with a message to US users that the company was working with the Trump administration on a solution. to find

WATCH |: Head to RedNote.

Chinese app RedNote is dangerous 'influence tool', says tech | Canada Tonight

Chinese social media app RedNote is in the spotlight after more than half a million TikTok users recently joined the platform to protest a possible impending ban on the short video app in the United States, which will take effect on Sunday. Technologist Jason Snyder said RedNote could “track or exploit users,” adding that the real danger comes from “the ability to manage stories.”

Kreps said he's even less sure the provision could be applied retroactively, given that the law was already in place when Trump signed his order.

“It is unclear that the new president has the authority to extend a law that has already been enacted for 90 days,” he said.

He also doubts there are standstill terms at this point, without even the names of a potential buyer proving the sale is going ahead. Various media reports have speculated whether Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk would buy. platform or Mark Zuckerberg's Meta will be interested.

Trump who had had earlier opposed TikTok's presence told reporters in the US that he changed his mind after using the app himself.

TikTok, meanwhile, continued to operate as usual in Canada and elsewhere.

The First Amendment Question

The Supreme Court approached the TikTok ban as a First Amendment issue and whether the law violates the free speech rights of TikTok or its users, said Georgetown University law professor Anupam Chander.

The court is “not judging the substance of the law. It's just saying whether Congress had the authority to pass this law,” he told CBC News.

Ultimately, it ruled the law constitutional, citing congressional concerns about the app's data collection.

Chander, who is an expert on new technology regulation, said Trump's delay in the ban could be challenged in court, though he added that “it's not clear who might be able to mount that challenge in U.S. courts.”

This, he said, is an example of the “danger” that comes from executive orders.

“If you can say, 'Hey, newspaper, you're going to go and I can decide your destiny in this country,' that makes the newspaper very condescending, to say the least.”

That was part of the argument made by the Supreme Court in a separate, broader case about social media platforms; in july when Florida and Texas argued that the government should limit how these platforms regulate content posted by their users.

The court issued an opinion arguing that platforms, like newspapers, should be protected from government intrusion in deciding what to include or exclude in the virtual space.

U.S. Representative Frank Fallon, Democrat of New Jersey, suggested that Trump's move was illegal, saying the newly sworn-in president was “circumventing national security legislation passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority of Congress.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, did not comment on the legality of Trump's move, but said he expected a full sale to take place.

But Trump may have other plans, suggesting to reporters on Monday that the government could strike a deal with ByteDance to buy a 50 percent stake in TikTok is another potential obstacle.

And yet, after attending Trump's inauguration on Monday, China's vice president met with US Vice President JD Vance and Musk, along with TikTok CEO Chu Shouzi.

If the sale goes through, the partly US-owned version of TikTok will likely be cut off from the rest of the world, according to Chander, not unlike Chinese social media platform Douyin, a TikTok-like sister app that only operates in China. for Chinese market only.

Those optics may not be good for the US, Chander says.

Douyin only operates in China because it's a “very censored environment,” he said, “and that's not what we normally do in the United States.”

“Canadians will stop talking to the rest of the world, and Americans will stop talking to ourselves. It's not a good look for the United States, and it's not good for the rest of the world.”