TikTok, which was officially banned in the US Sunday morning -yesterday, January 19 – issued a statement on X Sunday afternoon saying it was “in the process of restoring service” and thanked President-elect Donald Trump.
The popular social media app TikTok went dark for its 170 million American users on Jan. 19, after months of fighting the federal government’s demand that it separate from its China-based parent company, ByteDance.
In the hours before midnight struck on the East Coast, users experienced pop-ups while watching videos on the app, warning them that “a U.S. law banning Tiktok will take effect on January 19 and force us to make our services temporarily unavailable.”
Hours later, users could not scroll, watch or post videos and received messages stating that “TikTok isn’t available right now” but that the app is “fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.”
By Sunday afternoon, however, many users were able to access TikTok videos again without receiving any pop-up warnings or having to use hacks to circumvent the ban, such as downloading a virtual private network (VPN) to make it seem as if they were operating in countries outside the United States where TikTok is still available.
TikTok issued a statement on X saying that it was “in the process of restoring service” and thanked Trump, who will be officially sworn in as president on Monday, for “providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers” for the app to continue operating in the U.S.
“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,” TikTok’s statement concluded.
Hours before TikTok appeared to restore service to its U.S. users, Trump made his own statement about the TikTok ban on Truth Social, saying that he would be issuing an executive order on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, to “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect.” According to his post, Trump said he wants “the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture” in order to “save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up.”
Trump told his supporters that he wants Chinese-owned short-form video app TikTok to be at least 50 per cent owned by U.S. investors.
On the eve of his swearing-in, Trump told a rally in Washington that he would allow the app to continue operating in the U.S., “but let the United States of America own 50 percent of TikTok.”
“TikTok is worth nothing, zero without an approval,” to operate, Trump said.
“If you do approve, they’re worth like a trillion dollars, they’re worth some crazy number.
“I’m approving on behalf of the United States, so they’ll have a partner, the United States, and they’ll have a lot of bidders and the United States will do what we call a joint venture,” Trump added.
The popular app blocked access for U.S.-based users for about 12 hours on Sunday.
This was due to a new U.S. law mandating TikTok either be sold by its current Chinese owners, ByteDance, or else be banned in the country, was set to come into force.
The app came back online after Trump, who is set to take office on Monday, said that he would issue an executive order reinstating the platform in the U.S
