Less than 24 hours after dark, TikTok says it has come online again after the election of the president Donald Trump gave the company’s service providers – presumably Apple, Google and Oracle – assurances that his government would not enforce any law prohibiting it app first of all.
“In agreement with our service providers TikTok is in the process of restoring service,” the company wrote in a statement. “We thank President Trump for providing our service providers with the clarity and assurance they need that they will not face penalties for sharing TikTok with over 170 million Americans and enabling over 7 million small businesses to thrive.” It’s a strong advocacy for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”
It’s the latest salvo in the dramatic fight about the future of TikTok in the USA. Last year, Congress passed one Law That required ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to divest its U.S. operations or face a ban starting Jan. 19. TikTok sued on First Amendment grounds but lost Supreme Court. Last night, Apple and Google removed the app, as well as many other apps developed by ByteDance, from their respective app stores. Oracle reportedly asked its employees to shut down servers hosting TikTok US data The information.
The move paved the way for President-elect Trump, who had sought to ban TikTok while in office, to save the app before being sworn in as president. “I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the time until the statutory bans go into effect so that we can reach an agreement to protect our national security.” He wrote about Truth Social Sunday morning. “The order also confirms that there will be no liability for any company that, prior to my order, helped keep TikTok from falling into the background.”
Technically, the law only allows Trump to extend the enforcement deadline if ByteDance makes real progress about a deal to divest its US operations. Those whose names have come into play as possible buyers include Elon Musk and fellow billionaire Frank McCourt. While McCourt did an official offerMusk’s name was supposedly swam in talks with the Chinese government, according to Bloomberg. “I want the United States to have a 50 percent stake in a joint venture,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “In this way, we are saving TikTok, keeping it in good hands and letting it have its say.” There is no Tik Tok without US approval. With our approval, it’s worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.”
TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps are still not back in US app stores at the time of publication. However, several users have reported that they were able to access their timelines again after they were listed as unavailable last night. Others had access to their accounts again, but with different functionality.
