TikTok has announced that it has restored service to 170 million users in the United States after President-elect Donald Trump said he would delay banning the app when he takes office today.
TikTok announced yesterday that it was in the process of “restoring service,” just hours after it cut off access to users in the United States, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
TikTok previously went down hours before a new law banning the platform was set to take effect.
A message that appeared in the app for US users said that a law had been passed banning TikTok, meaning “you can’t use TikTok for now.”
“We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office,” the text said.
This came after the social media platform warned that “darkness will fall” on Sunday unless the outgoing Biden administration guarantees that the ban will not be enforced.
US President-elect Donald Trump hinted at a pre-inauguration rally in Washington on Sunday that he plans to “save” TikTok.
“Frankly, we have no choice, we have to save it. A lot of jobs. We don’t want to give our jobs to China, we don’t want to give our jobs to other people,” Trump said at a rally in the arena in Washington.
U.S. law allows for a 90-day delay in the ban if the White House can show progress toward a viable deal in which TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, sells its U.S. subsidiary to non-Chinese buyers.
Users reported that the app was also removed from Apple and Google’s US app stores, and TikTok.com was not displaying videos.
The US Supreme Court upheld a law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance sells it to an approved US buyer, which it continues to refuse.
