TikTok said Sunday it was restoring service to users in the United States just hours after the went dark in response to , which President-elect Donald Trump said he would try to pause by executive order on his first day in office.
Trump said he planned to issue the order to give TikTok鈥檚 China-based parent company to find an before the ban takes full effect. He announced the move on his Truth Social account as millions of U.S. TikTok users awoke to discover they could the TikTok app or platform.
removed the app from their digital stores to comply with the law, which required them to do so if TikTok parent company ByteDance didn鈥檛 sell its U.S. operation by Sunday. The law, which passed with in April, allows for steep fines.
The company that runs TikTok in the U.S. said in a post on X that Trump's post had provided 鈥渢he necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans.鈥�
Some users reported soon after TikTok's statement that the app was working again, and TikTok鈥檚 website appeared to be functioning for at least some people. Even as TikTok was flickering back on, it remained unavailable for download in Apple and Google鈥檚 app stores. Neither Apple or Google responded to messages seeking comment Sunday.
The law that took effect Sunday required ByteDance to cut ties with the platform鈥檚 U.S. operations due to national security concerns posed by the app鈥檚 Chinese roots. However, the statute gave the sitting president authority to grant a 90-day extension if a viable sale was underway.
Although investors made a few offers, ByteDance previously said it would not sell. Trump said his order would 鈥渆xtend the period of time before the law鈥檚 prohibitions take effect鈥� and 鈥渃onfirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.鈥�
鈥淎mericans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations,鈥� Trump wrote.
It was not immediately clear how Trump's promised action would fare from a legal standpoint since the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the ban on Friday and the statute came into force the day before Trump's return to the White House.
Some lawmakers who voted for the sale-of-ban law, including some of Trump's fellow Republicans, remain in favor of it. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas warned companies Sunday not to provide TikTok with the technical support it needs to function as it did before.
鈥淎ny company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law, not just from (the Justice Department), but also under securities law, shareholder lawsuits, and state AGs,鈥� Cotton wrote on X. 鈥淭hink about it.鈥�
The on-and-off availability of TikTok came after the Supreme Court ruled that the risk to national security posed by TikTok鈥檚 ties to China outweighed concerns about limiting speech by the app or its millions of U.S. users.
When TikTok users in the U.S. tried to watch or post videos on as of Saturday night, they saw a pop-up message under the headline, 鈥淪orry, TikTok isn鈥檛 available right now.鈥�
鈥淎 law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.,鈥� the message said. 鈥淯nfortunately that means you can鈥檛 use TikTok for now.鈥�
The service interruption TikTok instituted hours early caught many users by surprise. Experts had said the law as written did not require TikTok to take down its platform, only for to remove it. Current users had been expected to continue to have access to videos until a lack of updates caused the app to stop working.
鈥淭he community on TikTok is like nothing else, so it鈥檚 weird to not have that anymore,鈥� content creator Tiffany Watson, 20, said Sunday.
Watson said she had been in denial about the looming shutdown and with the space time on her hands plans to focus on bolstering her presence on Instagram and YouTube.
鈥淭here are still people out there who want beauty content,鈥� Watson said.
The company鈥檚 app also was removed late Saturday from prominent app stores. Apple told customers with its devices that it also took down other apps developed by ByteDance. They included Lemon8, which some influencers had promoted , the popular video editing app CapCut and photo editor Hypic.
鈥淎pple is obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates,鈥� the company said.
Trump's plan to spare TikTok on his first day in office reflected the ban's coincidental timing and the unusual mix of political considerations surrounding a social media platform that first gained popularity with featuring dances and music clips.
During his first presidential term, Trump in 2020 issued executive orders banning TikTok and the Chinese messaging app WeChat, moves that courts subsequently blocked. When momentum for a ban emerged in Congress last year, however, he opposed the legislation. Trump has since credited TikTok with helping him win support from young voters in last year's presidential election.
Despite its own part in getting the nationwide ban enacted, the Biden administration stressed in recent days that it did not intend to implement or enforce the ban before Trump takes office on Monday.
In the nine months since Congress passed the sale-or-ban law, emerged, and ByteDance publicly insisted it would not sell TikTok. But Trump said he hoped his administration could facilitate a deal to 鈥渟ave鈥� the app.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to attend inauguration with a prime seating location.
Chew posted a video late Saturday thanking Trump for his commitment to work with the company to keep the app available in the U.S. and taking a 鈥渟trong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship.鈥�
Trump's choice for national security adviser, Michael Waltz, told CBS News on Sunday that the president-elect discussed TikTok going dark in the U.S. during a weekend call with Chinese President Xi Jinping 鈥渁nd they agreed to work together on this.鈥�
On Saturday, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance to create a new entity that merges Perplexity with TikTok's U.S. business, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Perplexity is not asking to purchase the ByteDance algorithm that feeds TikTok user鈥檚 videos based on their interests and has made the platform such a phenomenon.
Other investors also eyed TikTok. 鈥淪hark Tank鈥� star Kevin O鈥橪eary recently said a consortium of investors that he and offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash. 罢谤耻尘辫鈥檚 former treasury secretary, , also said last year that he was putting together an investor group to buy TikTok.
In Washington, lawmakers and administration officials have about TikTok, warning the algorithm that fuels what users see is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities. But to date, the U.S. has not publicly provided evidence of TikTok handing user data to Chinese authorities or tinkering with its algorithm to benefit Chinese interests.
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Kanis Leung in Hong Kong and Charlotte Kramon in Atlanta and Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California, contributed to this story.
Haleluya Hadero, The Associated Press
