Less than a day after ByteDance shut down TikTok in the United States, the company says the app is coming back. In a statement released on Sunday afternoon, TikTok wrote: “In consultation with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of resuming operations.”
The statement also expressed gratitude to Trump, who will be sworn in on Monday and has previously said he is considering extending TikTok’s life amid reports of potential buyers (although ByteDance has not expressed any interest in selling). “We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that will keep TikTok in the United States,” TikTok said.
At the time of this writing, the TikTok app is working again for me, despite the fact that it previously showed a message saying that I “cannot use TikTok for now”. Phew, what a pain – checks his watch – 12 hours without it. TikTok doesn’t seem to be back in the App Store or Google Play Store yet, so if you deleted the app from your phone, you’ll probably have to wait a little longer to get it back. CapCut, one of the other ByteDance apps that fell under the ban, is also unavailable.
Although the law banning TikTok was supposed to go into effect today, January 19, the outgoing administration said it would not enforce it in Biden’s final hours as president. On Saturday, MSNBC reported that White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre called TikTok’s threat to go dark a “stunt,” saying that “we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take action in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday.” But TikTok argued that it could not stay online without guarantees that service providers would not be penalized.
Trump intervened on Sunday morning, writing on Truth Social: “I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay in the dark! On Monday, I will issue an executive order to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. The executive order will also confirm that no company that helped TikTok stay offline before my order will be held liable.”
He also outlined a vague plan for how he envisions TikTok’s future in the United States. “I would like the United States to have a 50% stake in the joint venture. This way we will save TikTok, keep it in good hands and let it have its say. Without US approval, TikTok doesn’t exist.”
According to NPR’s Bobby Allin, who spoke with a person close to the matter, Trump’s statement was reassuring enough for TikTok’s web providers, Oracle and Akamai, to restore the service. But Apple and Google “still haven’t agreed to let TikTok come back,” Allin reports. Providers who do not comply with the law banning TikTok have been threatened with fines that could amount to billions of dollars, so it is not surprising that we do not see TikTok in the App Store or Google Play Store yet. Apple has already stated about its decision to remove TikTok and other ByteDance apps that it is “committed to complying with the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates.”
