Donald Trump’s promise earlier in the day to grant the video app a respite from its US ban, TikTok announced on Sunday that it was resuming operations in the US.
Trump posted on Truth Social that he would sign an executive order after taking office on Monday, giving the Chinese-owned video app more time to find a buyer before it is shut down completely. He also suggested that the US or an American company purchase a 50% part in the company.
“By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say (sic) up,” Trump said. “Without US approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.”
TikTok stopped working in the US for 170 million users late on Saturday.
TikTok, which is presently owned by ByteDance, was ordered under a statute passed by Congress in April to either sell to a non-Chinese owner or risk being banned from the US. The app decided to shut down after the US Supreme Court upheld the restriction on Friday. If TikTok failed to make a sale, the law would prohibit corporations from distributing, maintaining, or updating the software, thus eliminating it from app stores.
Users of the app in the US saw the following pop-up notification from Saturday night till Sunday afternoon: “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US.” Regretfully, that means you are currently unable to use TikTok. Trump had advocated for a ban during his former administration, but he made a last-minute move to step in on TikTok’s behalf after discovering a sizable following on the platform during his 2024 presidential campaign.
Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of the firm, thanked Trump in a video for his efforts to maintain the app’s functionality in the US. He is anticipated to physically attend Trump’s inauguration.
“We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive,” the company said in a statement following Trump’s message on Sunday, adding that it was “in the process of restoring service.” It is a resolute defence of the First Amendment and an opposition to capricious censorship. We’ll collaborate with President Trump to find a sustainable solution that retains TikTok in the US.
Some Tiktok users reported the app was fully functional once again shortly after the announcement.
Additionally, Trump hasn’t ruled out long-term Chinese control, according to Mike Waltz, the new national security adviser, who told CNN on Sunday that “firewalls to make sure that the data is protected here on US soil.”
Additionally, he stated on Sunday on CBS News that Trump stated he is trying to “save” TikTok and that he needed time to resolve the company’s problems and assess possible buyers.
Concerns around TikTok centre on the possibility of the Chinese state accessing the personal data generated by the app’s US users or manipulating the app’s powerful algorithm to dictate what users see. Chew has denied Chinese state involvement in the app, saying in 2023 ByteDance is not “an agent of China or any other country”.
Last week it was reported that Trump was weighing delaying the ban via an executive order. The legislation threatening TikTok with a ban contains a provision allowing the president to extend the sale deadline, which passed on Sunday, for a sale by 90 days if there is the possibility of deal, although the law cites the need for “evidence of significant progress” towards a transaction.
The Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that he intends to uphold the TikTok ban.
“When President Trump issued the Truth post and said save TikTok, the way we read that is that he’s going to try to force along a true divestiture, changing of hands, the ownership,” Johnson said.
He added members of Congress are not worried about the app itself but about the Chinese Communist Party, and said TikTok’s owners, ByteDance, had 270 days to sell the app in the US.
Some Republicans have rejected the idea of extending the time before the ban goes into effect.
“Now that the law has taken effect, there’s no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date,” said the Senate intelligence committee chairman Tom Cotton (Republican of Arkansas) and Senator Pete Ricketts (Republican of Nebraska) in a joint statement on Sunday.
“For TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that satisfies the law’s qualified-divestiture requirements by severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China. Only then will Americans be protected from the grave threat posed to their privacy and security by a communist-controlled TikTok.”
Several Democrats last week urged President Biden to issue a reprieve to give TikTok more time before shutting down.
“It’s clear that more time is needed to find an American buyer for TikTok,” the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said on 16 January. “We will continue working to keep TikTok alive, protect content creators’ livelihoods, protect against CCP surveillance, and protect national security. I will work with the Trump Admin to find a solution.”
The Shark Tank celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary said on Friday he offered TikTok’s owners $20bn to buy it, while the company Perplexity AI has also reportedly submitted a bid to merge with TikTok US, rather than purchase the app outright. It has also been reported that Chinese officials have considered brokering a TikTok sale to Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and a Trump ally. TikTok dismissed the Musk reports as “pure fiction”.
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