Trump restores TikTok service in the United States hours after ban

TikTok was back online in the United States on Sunday, hours after it was banned, in a development that reflects a political victory for President-elect Donald Trump on the eve of his inauguration.

In a sign that TikTok's vitality, which has 170 million users in the United States, has not been damaged, videos have been flooding the platform celebrating its return to service.

In a post on the X platform, TikTok thanked Trump, who said he plans to sign an executive order after his inauguration tomorrow to give the app's parent company, ByteDance, more time to find an approved buyer before the app faces a permanent ban in the United States.

The app stopped working in the United States late Saturday (January 18) before a law shutting it down for national security reasons took effect on Sunday.

US officials have warned that as long as the app remains under the Chinese parent company, there is a risk that Americans' data could be misused.

Trump said he would extend "the time period before the app ban goes into effect so we can make a deal to protect our national security."

“I would like the US to have a 50% ownership stake in a joint venture,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social. “By doing that, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands, and allow it to emerge.”

The law stipulates imposing a very heavy fine on any Internet service provider or app store that violates this law, as the value of this fine for app stores reaches five thousand dollars per user.

The law passed by Congress in 2024 provides for the possibility for the US president to postpone the implementation of the ban for 90 days in order to allow time to find a buyer for the US branch of the application.

“We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution to keep TikTok operating in the United States,” the group said.

The Supreme Court ruled in its decision that the law banning the application does not violate free speech rights and that the US government expressed legitimate national security concerns about a Chinese company owning the application.

Source: Agencies