TikTok says it is in process of restoring service to US users
TikTok thanked President-elect Donald Trump, who said he planned to sign an executive order after his inauguration on Monday.
TikTok has said it is restoring service to users in the US after the popular video-sharing platform went dark in response to a federal ban that President-elect Donald Trump said he would try to pause by executive order on his first day in office.
Mr Trump said he planned to issue the order to give TikTok’s China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer before the popular video-sharing platform is subject to a permanent US ban.
He announced the move on his Truth Social account as millions of US TikTok users awoke to discover they could no longer access the TikTok app or platform.
Google and Apple removed the app from their digital stores to comply with the law, which required them to do so if TikTok parent company ByteDance did not sell its US operation by Sunday.
The law, which passed with wide bipartisan support in April, allowed for steep fines for non-compliance.
The company that runs TikTok said in a post on X that Mr Trump’s post had provided “the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans”.
Some users reported soon after TikTok’s statement that the app was working again, and TikTok’s website appeared to be functioning for at least some users.
Even as TikTok was flickering back on, it remained unavailable for download in Apple and Google’s app stores.
The law that took effect on Sunday required ByteDance to cut ties with the platform’s US operations due to national security concerns posed by the app’s Chinese roots.
However, the statute gave the sitting president authority to grant a 90-day extension if a viable sale is under way.
Although investors made a few offers, ByteDance previously said it would not sell.
In his post on Sunday, Mr Trump said he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture”, but it was not immediately clear if he was referring to the government or an American company.
He said his order would “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect” and “confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order”.
“Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations,” Mr Trump wrote.
The on-and-off availability of TikTok came after the US Supreme Court held in a unanimous ruling on Friday that the risk to national security posed by TikTok’s ties to China outweighed concerns about limiting speech by the app or its millions of users in the United States.
When TikTok users in the US tried to watch or post videos on the platform as of Saturday night, they saw a pop-up message under the headline: “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.”
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US,” a pop-up message informed users who opened the TikTok app and tried to scroll through videos on Saturday night.
“Unfortunately that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
The service interruption TikTok instituted hours early caught most users by surprise.
Experts had said the law as written did not require TikTok to take down its platform, only for app stores to remove it.
Current users had been expected to continue to have access to videos until the app stopped working due to a lack of updates.
The company’s app was also removed late on Saturday from prominent app stores, including the ones operated by Apple and Google.
Apple told customers with its devices that it also took down other apps developed by TikTok’s China-based parent company, including one that some social media influencers had promoted as an alternative.
“Apple is obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates,” the company said.
Mr Trump’s plan to issue an executive order to spare TikTok on his first day in office reflected the ban’s coincidental timing and the unusual mix of political considerations surrounding a social media platform that first gained popularity with often silly videos featuring dances and music clips.
During his first term in the White House, Mr Trump issued executive orders in 2020 banning TikTok and the Chinese messaging app WeChat, moves that courts subsequently blocked.
When momentum for a ban emerged in Congress last year, however, he opposed the legislation.
Mr Trump has since credited TikTok with helping him win support from young voters in last year’s presidential election.
Despite its own part in getting the nationwide ban enacted, the Biden administration stressed in recent days that it did not intend to implement or enforce the ban before Mr Trump takes office on Monday.
In the nine months since Congress passed the sale-or-ban law, no clear buyers emerged, and ByteDance publicly insisted it would not sell TikTok.
But Mr Trump said he hoped his administration could facilitate a deal to “save” the app.
TikTok chief executive Shou Chew is expected to attend Mr Trump’s inauguration with a prime seating location.
Mr Chew posted a video late on Saturday thanking Mr Trump for his commitment to work with the company to keep the app available in the US and taking a “strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship”.
Mr Trump’s choice for national security adviser, Michael Waltz, told CBS News on Sunday that the president-elect discussed TikTok going dark in the US during a weekend call with Chinese President Xi Jinping “and they agreed to work together on this”.
