TikTok comes back online after Trump pledges to halt ban

Washington: TikTok started restoring its service after President-elect Donald Trump said he would revive the social media app’s access in the US when he returns to power.

TikTok had stopped working for Americans overnight after the US Supreme Court upheld a legislated ban of the Chinese-owned social media app due to national security concerns.

The law, which was passed by Congress and signed by US President Joe Biden in April, stemmed from fears that user information could end up in the hands of the Chinese government through TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company ByteDance.

But Trump had earlier announced his intention to use an executive order as soon as he is president to give the social media company more time to find an approved buyer so that the online platform was not permanently banned in the US. It came as millions of Americans awoke to the news that they could not access the video-sharing app.

Popular video-sharing social media platform TikTok has shut its US users out of the platform.Credit: AP

Trump also suggested the US could be a shared partner in any future agreement, and that his executive order would also make it clear that any companies distributing TikTok, such as Apple or Google, would not be liable for allowing people to still use the app.

“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” he posted on his Truth social platform.

“Americans deserve to see our exciting inauguration on Monday [Tuesday AEDT], as well as other events and conversations. I would like the United States to have a 50 per cent ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say [sic] up. Without US approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.”

The message displayed to US TikTok users on Sunday.

Following the court’s decision, Google and Apple removed the app from their digital stores to comply with a federal law that required them to do so if ByteDance didn’t sell its US operation to an approved buyer by Sunday.

Users trying to access the platform received a notification explaining they wouldn’t be able to use the app “for now”, offering hope that the social network would be reinstated after Trump was inaugurated.

“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US,” the notification read. “Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”

Trump was initially one of the early opponents of TikTok, but changed his views during the presidential campaign, in which he used the app to woo a significant number of young voters, particularly men.

The new law gives the sitting president authority to grant a 90-day extension if a viable sale is under way. ByteDance previously said it would not sell.

Trump’s latest announcement adds TikTok to the blizzard of “Day One” executive orders Trump has said he plans to issue after he is sworn into office as America’s 46th president.

He also plans to use the sweeping presidential power to tackle the immigration crisis, shake up the US economy with more aggressive tariffs, wind back climate change policies initiated by the Biden administration and grant pardons to people he believes were unfairly convicted over the January 6, 2021, attack at the US Capitol.

With Reuters

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