US President-elect Donald Trump has promised the social media platform another 90 days to find an American buyer
The viral social media app TikTok has restored service to US users following a 14-hour shutdown, crediting President-elect Donald Trump for his efforts and a promised reprieve, according to company statements.
The shutdown occurred amid US government pressure for ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to divest its ownership due to concerns over national security and the potential misuse of US user data. TikTok was briefly inaccessible to American users and remains absent from app stores, due to its failure to meet a January 19 deadline imposed under a federal law enacted last year.
On Sunday, users logging into TikTok were greeted with a pop-up message thanking Trump for aiding its return. The message read: “Welcome back! As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the US”
Speaking at a victory rally in Washington, DC, on Sunday, Trump confirmed TikTok’s restoration. “As of today, TikTok is back,” he told a cheering crowd. “Frankly, we have no choice; we have to save it.”
The president-elect also announced plans to grant TikTok a 90-day extension after he assumes office, giving the platform additional time to secure a buyer outside China. “I’ll approve, but let the United States of America own 50% of TikTok,” Trump said during his speech. “And the United States will do what we call a ‘joint venture.’”
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew expressed gratitude to Trump earlier in the week, thanking him for his efforts to keep the app accessible to approximately 170 million users in the US. CNN reported, citing anonymous sources, that Chew plans to attend both Trump’s victory rally and his inauguration on Monday.
Meanwhile, the 14-hour outage prompted many American users to migrate to RedNote, a Chinese-owned social media app that surged to the top of the US Apple App Store’s download charts. The trend was amplified by the viral hashtag #TikTokRefugee, which highlighted the mass transition of users to the alternative platform.
