Hours after it had gone dark in the United States because of a federal ban, ByteDance-owned TikTok said it was restoring service following President-elect Donald Trump’s statement that he would try to pause by executive order on his first day in office.
Trump said on Sunday on his own social media platform Truth Social that he planned to issue the order to give TikTok’s China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer before the ban takes full effect.
On Truth Social, Trump wrote: “I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark! I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.
“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 up. Without US approval, there is no Tik Tok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.
“Therefore, my initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the US gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the US and whichever purchase we so choose.”
Trump had earlier told NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ in a phone interview on Saturday that TikTok is likely to get a 90-day extension of the deadline after he takes office on Monday.
“I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation,” Trump said in the interview.
Later on Sunday, a message on TikTok read “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the US!” This was after millions of users woke up to find out that they could no longer access the popular video-sharing platform.
The company also posted a statement on X, saying: “In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties in providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.
“It’s a strong stand 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.”
Trump’s stance is a reversal from his earlier term as President when he signed executive orders to ban TikTok and the Chinese messaging app WeChat. That was blocked by the courts at the time.
Outgoing President Joe Biden signed the law last April, requiring the Beijing-based ByteDance to sell it to a non-Chinese buyer or face a nationwide prohibition in the United States.
Under the law, the president can grant a one-time extension of 90 days based on three conditions –
- There’s a path to divestiture;
- there’s “significant progress” toward executing it; and
- relevant binding legal agreements are in place to enable the execution of such qualified divestiture during the period of such extension.
App stores and cloud computing providers face financial penalties if they continue to extend their services to TikTok.
In a blog post, Apple said: “TikTok and ByteDance Ltd. apps are no longer available in the United States, and visitors to the United States might have limited access to features.
“Apple is obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates. Pursuant to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, apps developed by ByteDance Ltd. and its subsidiaries — including TikTok, CapCut, Lemon8, and others — will no longer be available for download or updates on the App Store for users in the United States starting January 19, 2025.”
The Information reported that Oracle, the main cloud computing provider for TikTok in the US, told staff to prepare to shut down servers that host TikTok data by 9 pm Eastern Time on Saturday in advance of the ban from Sunday.
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