TikTok restores service in US as Trump says he’ll save it

TikTok is restoring service to its app after Donald Trump said he would issue an executive order to reinstate the app in the US and wanted the country to have an ownership position in it.

Donald Trump with sons Donald Jr and Eric, their wives and his daughter Ivanka Trump. Picture: Truth Social.

TikTok is restoring service to its app after President-elect Donald Trump said he would issue an executive order on Monday to reinstate the service in the US and that he wants the country to have an ownership position in the app.

“In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service,” TikTok said in a statement Sunday, thanking Trump. It said the company will work with the incoming president on a long-term solution.

Trump’s comments on Truth Social come after TikTok went dark in the US, erasing the popular app for its American users in an unprecedented move.

“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” Trump wrote Sunday. He said the order would extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that the administration can make a deal to protect our national security.

Trump said the order would “also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.” TikTok was seeking such an assurance from the Biden administration.

The president-elect said he wants the U.S. to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture, although he didn’t provide further details about how such a joint venture would be structured. “By doing this, we save TikTok,” he wrote.

The app started halting service Saturday night for 170 million users in its most important market shortly before a law took effect requiring it to shed its Chinese ownership or close in the U.S. It marked the first time the U.S. government has compelled the closure of such a widely used app, and disrupted millions of American businesses and social-media entrepreneurs who use TikTok to connect with customers and fans.

TikTok users started seeing a message late Saturday saying, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.” “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!” There is an option under the message to get more information, and clicking brings users to a link to download their data. The app wasn’t available to download from Apple or Google’s app stores.

After TikTok went dark, some users took to other social media platforms to either mourn or poke fun at its departure.

“I’m sorry, I can’t. Don’t hate me -” said a post on X pretending to be from TikTok, a parody of the infamous “Sex and The City” break-up note.

Another post put a creepy grim reaper-like character and a bright orange banner over the TikTok logo. “Spirit of Halloween,” it said, referring to the holiday retail popup that tends to move into empty storefronts.

Above a short clip of a packed escalator moving at high speed, an X user wrote: “Everyone rushing to twitter because TikTok is gone.” TikTok Chief Executive Shou Chew is scheduled to attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday, along with U.S. tech luminaries including Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta Platforms owns TikTok rival Instagram.

Saturday’s shutdown capped a yearslong saga complicated by U.S. presidential politics, conflicting geopolitical interests and the ambiguities surrounding enforcement of the law, which outlines hefty penalties for noncompliance.

Biden administration officials had signalled that they didn’t intend to enforce the ban on President Biden’s final day in office and that enforcement would fall to the Trump White House, but that wasn’t enough to give TikTok comfort. TikTok pressed the administration for more assurance that it won’t enforce the law. A White House official said: “We have already gone to extraordinary lengths to communicate our posture.” Before positioning himself as TikTok’s potential saviour, Trump tried to ban TikTok in his first term. Biden, who signed the bipartisan law last April, was ending his term with aides saying he wouldn’t enforce it on his final day in office.

TikTok and parent ByteDance have portrayed themselves as independent of China, but their ability to do any divestiture deal to satisfy the U.S. law has been constrained by Beijing. In recent days, Chinese officials have internally discussed options including allowing a trusted non-Chinese party such as Elon Musk to invest in or take control of TikTok’s U.S. operations.

Potential suitors include Project Liberty, led by billionaire Frank McCourt, which said it submitted a proposal to buy TikTok’s U.S. assets other than the app’s algorithm. Much of ByteDance is owned by major American financial firms, including BlackRock, General Atlantic and Susquehanna International Group, co-founded by Republican megadonor Jeff Yass.

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, as it is formally called, took effect after the Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld it, siding with Congress’s national-security concerns over the claim by the platform and its users that the ban violates the First Amendment.

The law makes it unlawful for an entity to distribute, maintain or update the app, known for its addictive short videos. TikTok planned to shut down the app protectively so that its partners, including Apple’s and Google’s app stores and Oracle, which hosts U.S. users’ data, would be shielded from legal liability.

Trump had asked the Supreme Court to stop the law from taking effect, saying that he wants to pursue a negotiated resolution and that it is possible to spare TikTok while addressing the national-security concerns that drove Congress to enact it. The law allows for an extension if there is progress toward a qualified divestiture.

Dow Jones