Story by Raksha Bhattacharjee
Following a temporary outage due to a law that banned the immensely popular app on national security concerns, TikTok brought service back to the US on Sunday, January 19, 2025. Although the outgoing Joe Biden administration had previously stated that it would not impose any ban, TikTok praised President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Monday, with enabling the turnaround. Due to an impending deadline for its Chinese owners, ByteDance, to sell its US unit to non-Chinese buyers, the video-sharing app went down in the US late on Saturday.
TikTok expressed gratitude to President-elect Donald Trump
TikTok expressed gratitude to President-elect Donald Trump, who announced on Sunday that he would issue an executive order following his inauguration on Monday to allow the Chinese parent company of the popular video-sharing site additional time to find a buyer before the platform faces a permanent U.S. ban. In a post on his Truth Social platform, he also advocated for the US to acquire a portion of TikTok. The president-elect claimed that the app’s value might reach “hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions” and stated that he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture.”
More than 170 million Americans
TikTok stated it “is in the process of restoring service” in a statement that was put on X after Trump’s remarks. “We appreciate President Trump giving our service providers the clarity and guarantee they won’t be penalized for offering TikTok to more than 170 million Americans.” In the US, TikTok goes black before being banned. On Saturday night, users who launched the TikTok app and attempted to browse through videos were notified by a pop-up message that “a law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.” “Unfortunately, that means you are unable to use TikTok at this time.” Most users were caught off guard by the service outage that TikTok implemented hours in advance. According to experts, TikTok is not required under the legislation as written to shut down its platform; only app shops are.
Mr. Trump intended to write an executive order to spare TikTok.
Ms. Watson stated that she had been oblivious about the impending outage and that she intended to use the extra time to concentrate on boosting her visibility on YouTube and Instagram. According to Ms. Watson, there are still people who are interested in beauty stuff. Late on Saturday, the company’s app was taken down from well-known app stores, such as Google and Apple’s. Apple informed users of its devices that it also removed other applications created by the parent company of TikTok, which is based in China. One of those apps was one that was marketed as a substitute by several social media influencers. The Supreme Court upheld the ban on Friday, ruling that worries about TikTok or its 170 million American users restricting expression are outweighed by the threat to national security presented by the app’s connections to China. On his first day in office, Mr. Trump intended to write an executive order to spare TikTok.
Trump has given TikTok credit for helping him
In 2020, during his first term in office, Mr. Trump signed executive orders that prohibited the use of the Chinese messaging programs WeChat and TikTok. These measures were later blocked by courts. But last year, when a ban gained traction in Congress, he fought the bill. Since then, Mr. Trump has given TikTok credit for helping him garner support from young voters during the previous presidential election. Fortunately, President Trump has stated that he will collaborate with us to find a way to bring TikTok back once he gets into office. Stay tuned, please. “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now,” is the headline of the pop-up notice that users of the app now see.
The message’s sole options for U.S. users are to either select another option that takes them to the platform’s website or close the app. Users are presented with the same message there and have the option to download their data, which TikTok previously stated could take days to do.
Apple’s website, and visitors may have restricted access
Three TikTok apps and eight other ByteDance-made apps are no longer available in the United States, according to a statement posted on Apple’s website, and visitors may have restricted access. The apps that were deleted included Lemon8, a video-sharing app that shares some of the same features as TikTok, the art-editing software Hypic, and the video-editing program CapCut. Apple stated that it must abide by the laws of the countries in which it conducts business. Apple stated that although in-app purchases and new subscriptions would no longer be allowed, the applications would stay on users’ devices that already had them loaded. Additionally, Apple warned that operating updates for iPhones and iPads could have an impact on the apps’ functionality. Since Congress enacted the sale-or-ban law nine months ago, there has been no definitive.
Mr. Chew expressed gratitude to Trump
In a video posted late Saturday, Mr. Chew expressed gratitude to Trump for his pledge to cooperate with the company in order to maintain the app’s availability in the United States and for adopting a “strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship.” Michael Waltz, Mr. Trump’s nominee for national security adviser, said CBS News on Sunday that the president-elect spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping over the weekend about TikTok being dark in the United States “and they agreed to work together on this.” According to a person familiar with the situation, artificial intelligence firm Perplexity AI proposed to ByteDance on Saturday to form a new company that would combine Perplexity with TikTok’s U.S. division.
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