OAN Staff Abril Elfi
11:05 AM – Sunday, January 19, 2025
TikTok has put out a statement revealing their plan to restore their services for users in the United States, thanking President-elect Donald Trump for his assurances.
On Sunday, TikTok said in a post on X that the application had been restore in the U.S. and thanked Trump, who had announced plans to sign an executive order after his inauguration on Monday, giving TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, more time to find an approved buyer before it is subject to a permanent U.S. ban.
TikTok stated that the president-elect’s promise of an executive order had provided “the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.”
Whether TikTok was operating as it had before the company implemented a blackout late Saturday was not immediately apparent.
The app was running as normal on Saturday, according to some American users, with users seemingly able to access the TikTok website. However, the application was still not available for download on the Apple App Store.
On Sunday, Trump posted to Truth Social that his order would “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect” and “confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.
“Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations,” Trump wrote.
If a successful sale is in progress, the legislation allows the current president to issue a 90-day extension. Despite a few bids from investors, ByteDance has previously stated that company would not sell the app.
It’s currently unclear whether Trump was directing his statement to the U.S. government or an American business when he stated on Sunday that he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture.”
“By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say up,” Trump wrote. “Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.”
The Biden administration previously ordered Chinese ByteDance to sell TikTok, which has around 170 million U.S.-based users, due to “national security” reasons.
The law was first signed by President Joe Biden on April 24th, 2024. It was known as the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” making it unlawful for an entity to distribute, maintain, or update a foreign adversary-controlled application.
The Biden administration’s concerns reportedly stem from the massive amount of data that the Chinese app gathers from its users, which could be utilized by the Chinese government to later “blackmail” U.S. citizens, nefariously using it to their advantage.
On the flip side, TikTok users and content creators have argued that the ban is “unconstitutional,” claiming it violates their “right to free speech” and expression.
“Rarely if ever has the court confronted a free-speech case that matters to so many people,” wrote lawyers representing TikTok content creators and users.
TikTok added that the potential ban “will silence the speech of applicants and the many Americans who use the platform to communicate about politics, commerce, arts and other matters of public concern.”
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
