TikTok Resumes Service In U.S. Hours After Going Dark

TikTok resumed its service in the United States on Sunday, hours after it was suspended.

TikTok said it would work with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who will assume the presidency on Monday, for a long-term solution that would keep TikTok in the United States.

The resume came just one day after U.S. users were met with a message stating "A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now."

The app also disappeared from Apple's App Store and Google Play app store on Saturday night.

TikTok, headquartered in Los Angeles, warned Friday that it would be forced to shut down its services for the 170 million users in the United States on Sunday unless U.S. President Joe Biden provides a "definitive" assurance.

Earlier on Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law forcing TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the app to an American company or face a nationwide ban starting on Sunday, just one day before Trump's inauguration.

The ban could have impacted U.S. small businesses substantially. According to TikTok, over 7 million U.S. accounts used TikTok for business purposes as of November 2024.

The company also warned that U.S. small businesses and content creators would lose 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in revenue and earnings within the first month of shutdown, with nearly 2 million creators potentially losing 300 million U.S. dollars in income.

In the aftermath of the shutdown, many TikTok users turned to other social media platforms to express their sadness, frustration, and anger toward the government.

Emily Senn, who had amassed 340,000 TikTok followers, shared a tearful farewell video discussing the platform's impact on her life and finances. "And to the U.S. government, I'm never forgiving you for this," she said.

Another TikTok user, Alejandro Flores-Munoz, owns a catering business in Denver, Colorado. He told the Associated Press that TikTok helped him reach customers without spending money on marketing. "It's very disheartening, specifically because I truly did rely on the app for my business and my growth," he said.

On Sunday, Trump announced on Truth Social that he will issue an executive order on Monday that will allow TikTok to continue operating, which, according to his interview with NBC on Saturday, will "most likely" be a 90-day reprieve from a potential ban.

"The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order," he continued.

The incoming president also said that he would like the United States to have a 50-percent ownership position in a joint venture.

"My initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50 percent ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose," Trump said.
-XINHUA