Opinion
20 Jan 25

TikTok restores services in the US hours after shutdown

Credit: Plannthat.com

Donald Trump pledged on Sunday that he would give the video app a reprieve on its US ban.

TikTok’s services have been restored in the US following a ruling from the US Supreme Court stating that the app would be banned from Sunday, January 19 if it was not sold by its parent company.

The app went dark on January 18 with users unable to see content and major app stores removing the platform for download.

However, following claims from President-elect Donald Trump that he will pause the ban by executive order on his first day in office, TikTok restored services yesterday, January 19, The Associated Press reports.

In a statement posted on Truth Socials yesterday, Trump wrote: “I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say (sic). Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok.

“Therefore, my initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose.”

Congress passed a law in April ordering TikTok, which is currently owned by ByteDance, to either sell to a non-Chinese owner or face being removed from the US.

The company’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, released a video thanking Trump for his efforts to keep the app active in the US.

During his first presidency, Trump had threatened to ban TikTok several times, using an executive order to attempts to do so.

This resulted in TikTok suing the US government in August 2020. After assuming presidency in June 2021, Biden signed an executive order revoking Trump’s ban on TikTok, and ordering the Secretary of Commerce to investigate if the app posed a threat to U.S. national security.

Following 2022 reports that ByteDance employees in China could access private US user data TikTok announced that all US user traffic would be routed to Oracle Cloud, the American tech company’s servers.

In April 2024, however, Biden gave ByteDance six months to sell its stake in the app or be banned in the US.