US attorney general Pam Bondi has told at least 10 tech companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, that they have “incurred no liability” for supporting TikTok despite the federal ban on providing services to the popular video-sharing app, according to letters disclosed on Thursday.
Under orders from President Donald Trump, Bondi has refused to enforce a law passed by Congress last year that classifies TikTok as a national security risk because of its ties to China and bars companies from distributing the app to US consumers.
TikTok can dodge the ban by reducing the ownership Chinese entities have in its US operations, and Trump has described those negotiations as ongoing. But constitutional experts have questioned the legality of executive orders by Trump that delay enforcement of the ban as those sales talks drag out.
Early this year, TikTok disappeared from the US app stores of Apple and Google after the ban went into effect. But despite the law still being on the books, TikTok returned to the stores after just a 26-day hiatus. Several media outlets reported at the time that Bondi had written to Apple and Google promising they would not face prosecution. But the letters had not been publicly disclosed until Thursday.
Silicon Valley software engineer Tony Tan had sought the letters under the Freedom of Information Act. The Department of Justice initially claimed it did not have records matching Tan’s request. He sued the department, which ended up releasing several letters to him on Thursday.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The disclosures show the first letters were dated January 30 and sent to four companies—Microsoft, Google, Apple, and content delivery network provider Fastly. “Google has committed no violation of the Act and Google has incurred no liability under the Act during the Covered Period,” then-acting attorney general James McHenry wrote. “Google may continue to provide services to TikTok as contemplated by the Executive Order without violating the Act, and without incurring any legal liability.”
Bondi took over as attorney general in early February, and days later Google and Apple separately wrote to her, according to the released documents. In responses dated February 11, Bondi wrote that “the Department of Justice is also irrevocably relinquishing any claims the United States might have had against” the companies for violating the TikTok ban.
After Microsoft inquired, it also received on March 10 a letter “irrevocably relinquishing any claims.” Similar language was included in letters dated March 10 to Amazon, data center company Digital Realty, and cell phone service giant T-Mobile.
In early April, Trump extended the negotiating window for a TikTok sale and further delayed enforcement of the ban. That led to a round of 10 letters on April 5, including to content delivery provider Akamai, cloud vendor Oracle, and TV maker LG. Among those letters, only the ones to Apple and Google mentioned the “irrevocably relinquishing” vow. But three days later, Bondi sent a new version to Microsoft including the language.
Microsoft and the other nine companies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Tan, who obtained the letters, last month filed a lawsuit against Google parent company Alphabet accusing it of withholding information about its decision to continue distributing TikTok on its Play store. (Google previously declined to comment to WIRED on the suit.) He worries that the promises from Bondi are non-binding, and that Trump or a future president could end up prosecuting tech companies that are currently supporting TikTok. Google could face billions of dollars in fines if found in violation of the ban.
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![New Google commercial imagines a Declaration of Independence written with help from AI | TechCrunch
Two hundred and fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a new commercial from Google asks: What if the Founding Fathers had access to Google Workspace?
With the tagline “Group project, but make it 1776,” the ad depicts a largely unseen Thomas Jefferson mid-draft when he gets a nagging text from Ben Franklin, leading to a very Google-centric collaboration process. Edits are suggested in Google Docs, a meeting gets scheduled in Google Calendar and conducted remotely via Google Meet (with every single attendee apparently turning their camera off?), then the whole thing is finalized with e-signatures; cue the fireworks.
Of course, since this is an ad from a tech company in the year 2026, AI has a role to play. The fictionalized founders use Google’s “help me visualize” AI tool to try out different animals on the national seal, Gemini takes notes on the meeting, and the founders also ask the chatbot for advice before declining King George III’s document access request.
The whole thing is very tongue-in-cheek (at one point, Sam Adams asks, “Can we settle this over beers?”), and the AI evangelism is relatively discreet when compared to many other recent ads. And unlike that infamous Google commercial in which a father uses Gemini to write a fan letter for his daughter, this one shies away from any suggestion that the actual text of the Declaration of Independence would be improved with AI. Perhaps the most AI-forward element of the ad is the footage itself, which to my eye has the uncanny glow of AI-generated video.
While viewer comments on YouTube and Instagram appear to be mostly positive, you may not be surprised to learn that the response on Bluesky has been far more critical. Posters declared the commercial “cringey” and “stunningly tone deaf,” and the AI angle was the biggest target — even as many users, including historian Angus Johnston, noted that it’s “amazing how little of this is actually AI.”
“Even in a corny fantasy joke, it’s impossible to make the case that AI is a useful tool for political organizing, writing, or human collaboration,” Johnston said.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3RjZY-rSsc[/embed]
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Google #commercial #imagines #Declaration #Independence #written #TechCrunchgemini,Google](https://i2.wp.com/techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/google-declaration-of-independence.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1 "New Google commercial imagines a Declaration of Independence written with help from AI | TechCrunch
Two hundred and fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a new commercial from Google asks: What if the Founding Fathers had access to Google Workspace?
With the tagline “Group project, but make it 1776,” the ad depicts a largely unseen Thomas Jefferson mid-draft when he gets a nagging text from Ben Franklin, leading to a very Google-centric collaboration process. Edits are suggested in Google Docs, a meeting gets scheduled in Google Calendar and conducted remotely via Google Meet (with every single attendee apparently turning their camera off?), then the whole thing is finalized with e-signatures; cue the fireworks.
Of course, since this is an ad from a tech company in the year 2026, AI has a role to play. The fictionalized founders use Google’s “help me visualize” AI tool to try out different animals on the national seal, Gemini takes notes on the meeting, and the founders also ask the chatbot for advice before declining King George III’s document access request.
The whole thing is very tongue-in-cheek (at one point, Sam Adams asks, “Can we settle this over beers?”), and the AI evangelism is relatively discreet when compared to many other recent ads. And unlike that infamous Google commercial in which a father uses Gemini to write a fan letter for his daughter, this one shies away from any suggestion that the actual text of the Declaration of Independence would be improved with AI. Perhaps the most AI-forward element of the ad is the footage itself, which to my eye has the uncanny glow of AI-generated video.
While viewer comments on YouTube and Instagram appear to be mostly positive, you may not be surprised to learn that the response on Bluesky has been far more critical. Posters declared the commercial “cringey” and “stunningly tone deaf,” and the AI angle was the biggest target — even as many users, including historian Angus Johnston, noted that it’s “amazing how little of this is actually AI.”
“Even in a corny fantasy joke, it’s impossible to make the case that AI is a useful tool for political organizing, writing, or human collaboration,” Johnston said.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3RjZY-rSsc[/embed]
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Google #commercial #imagines #Declaration #Independence #written #TechCrunchgemini,Google")
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