TikTok restores its services in the United States after Trump's pledge

Watch: How TikTok “went dark” in the US

TikTok is resuming services for its 170 million users in the United States after President-elect Donald Trump announced he would issue an executive order to grant a reprieve to the app when he takes office on Monday.

On Saturday evening, the Chinese application stopped working for American users, after a law came into force banning it for national security reasons.

Trump, who previously supported banning the platform, vowed on Sunday to delay implementation of the law and allow more time for a deal to be reached. TikTok then indicated that it was “restoring service”.

Shortly after, the app started working again and a pop-up message to its millions of users thanked Trump by name. In a statement, the company thanked the new president for “providing needed clarity and assurance” and said it would work with Trump “on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”

TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to attend Trump's inauguration on Monday.

On Truth Social, a social media platform he owns, Trump said Sunday: “I'm asking companies not to let TikTok stay in the dark! I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the deadline before the law's prohibitions take effect. , so we can reach an agreement to protect our national security.

TikTok parent company Bytedance previously ignored a law requiring it to sell its U.S. operations to avoid a ban. The law was upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday and took effect on Sunday.

It is unclear how much legal authority Trump will have to delay the implementation of a law already in place. But he expects his government will not enforce the ban if it issues a decree.

This is a reversal from his previous position. Trump had supported a ban on TikTok, but more recently said it was a “hot spot” for the app, touting the billions of views he says it attracted to the platform during the year's presidential campaign last.

For its part, President Joe Biden's administration had already said it would not enforce the law in the final hours of its term and would instead let the process play out under the new Trump administration.

But TikTok still withdrew its services on Saturday evening, before quickly restoring access on Sunday.

The short-form video platform is very popular among its millions of American users. It has also proven to be a valuable tool for American political campaigns aimed at reaching young voters.

Under the law passed last April, the US version of the app was to be removed from app stores and web hosting services if its Chinese owner ByteDance did not sell its US operations.

TikTok had argued before the Supreme Court that the law violated its users' protection of free speech in the country.

The law passed with the support of Republicans and Democrats in Congress and was unanimously upheld by Supreme Court justices earlier this week.

This question reveals a divide on key national security issues between the president-elect and members of his own party. His choice for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, had strongly supported the ban.

“TikTok has expanded the power and influence of the Chinese Communist Party in our own nation, right under our noses,” he said last April. But he appeared to defer to the president-elect when asked by a reporter whether he supported Trump's effort to reinstate the ban.

“If I am confirmed as secretary of state, I will work for the president,” he told the Punchbowl news outlet last week.

After Trump's intervention Sunday morning, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas, broke with Trump by saying that any company helping TikTok stay online would be breaking the law.

“Any company that hosts, distributes, maintains or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars in ruinous liability under the law, not only from the DOJ, but also under securities law, shareholder suits and state AGs.” he wrote on social media.

A decree contrary to the law could be challenged in court.

Several states have also sued the platform, opening the possibility that TikTok could be banned by local jurisdictions even though it is available nationally.

Although the platform was operational again on Sunday for existing users, it remains unclear whether third parties – hosting platforms or app stores like Google or Apple – could support TikTok in the United States, Carl said. Tobias, professor of law at the University of Richmond. The app had been removed from these stores in anticipation of the ban.

“It’s murky,” he told the BBC.

In an article on Truth Media, Trump promised to protect the companies from liability, opening the door to TikTok being available on Apple and Google.

“The order will also confirm that there will be no accountability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going under before my order,” the president-elect said on Truth Social Sunday.

But during Supreme Court hearings, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar insisted that an executive order cannot change the law retroactively.

“Whatever the new president does, it will not change the reality of these companies,” Judge Sonia Sotomayor said during the hearings.

“It’s true,” Prelogar said.

Professor Tobias said the law includes a provision that would allow the president to delay the ban for up to 90 days, if he can demonstrate that the company is making substantial progress in alleviating national security concerns. But, he added, it is not clear whether those conditions were met.

“The best thing Trump can do is work with Congress, and not potentially break the law or leave questions unanswered,” he said.

“I don’t know if we’ll know much more until we see this executive order.”

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