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After a little more than 12 hours TikTok has gone dark in the United States, the video-sharing app is coming back online.
“In consultation with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service,” the company said in a statement. “We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will not face any penalties for providing TikTok to more than 170 million Americans and enabling more than 7 million small businesses to thrive.”
The law, which would have forced TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to sell the app or ban it in the United States, was set to go into effect today. The law also prohibited US companies from supporting the distribution, maintenance or updating of the app.
As President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office, President Joe Biden’s White House and Justice Department officials said the leave law enforcement to the Trump administrationbut TikTok said “critical service providers” needed a “definitive statement” or the app would be blacked out. And sure enough, the app stopped working last night and disappeared from the Apple and Google Play app stores.
However, earlier today President-elect Donald Trump made the announcement he would issue an executive order that would delay the ban, and he suggested he would like to see TikTok reinstated as soon as possible because “Americans deserve to see our exciting inauguration on Monday.” To that end, he said his order would “confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.”
That seems to be enough persuasion for TikTok and its service providers. The TikTok app was already back up and running for several TechCrunch writers at the time the company released its statement. However, as of 1:05 PM Eastern, it still appeared to be gone from the Apple App Store and Google Play.
And not all representatives were involved. In response to TikTok’s post, the Republican Senator Tom Cotton announced that “any company that hosts, distributes, services or otherwise enables the communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars in devastating liability.”
Trump’s Sunday morning post also indicated that his “initial thinking” on a deal to keep TikTok operating in the US would involve “a joint venture between current owners and/or new owners with the US getting 50% ownership.”
In its statement, TikTok said it would “work with President Trump on a long-term solution that will keep TikTok in the United States.”
