On Thursday, TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, became available again in the US Apple App Store and Google Play stores, after Apple and Alphabet received a letter from US Attorney General Pam Bondi, where he assured that the ban would not be implemented immediately.
On Thursday, TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, became available again in the US Apple App Store and Google Play stores, after Apple and Alphabet received a letter from US Attorney General Pam Bondi, where he assured that the ban would not be implemented immediately.
Last month, both companies removed TikTok in the US to comply with a law passed in 2024. In an executive order dated January 20, Trump said he had instructed the attorney general “not to take any enforcement action for 75 days, starting today, to allow my administration the opportunity to determine an appropriate course of action,” Bloomberg writes .
As of Thursday evening, TikTok was already available in the Apple App Store and Google Play in the US.
The move comes after weeks of uncertainty about TikTok’s future, and there’s still no guarantee it will survive in the U.S. in the long term. The video app briefly disappeared last month to comply with a federal ban, but then reappeared after Trump vowed to halt enforcement. But Apple and Google did not immediately restore the app to their app stores.
Trump previously supported the ban but has since changed his stance. “I seem to have a soft spot for TikTok that I didn’t have at first,” he said as he signed the executive order.
If it doesn't reach a deal by early April to resolve national security concerns about its current ownership of TikTok, the app could be shut down again. ByteDance says TikTok is not for sale.
Recall that US lawmakers passed the ban due to concerns about Chinese ownership of TikTok, fearing that the popular app could be used to spy on American citizens. China requires its companies to share data with the government upon request.
The federal law, called the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary-Controlled Programs Act," was supported by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress and signed by President Joe Biden last April.
The law required a nationwide ban on TikTok unless ByteDance made a “qualified sale” by January 19. This meant that the American part of the business had to be sold. The following have expressed their desire to buy the social network: American real estate magnate Frank McCourt , former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick , former US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO.
Chinese officials also considered selling Elon Musk's US unit of TikTok if ByteDance failed to win the ban in court, which ultimately failed. But the American billionaire was not interested in this option.
