TikTok restoring services in US after Trump pledge

After President-elect Donald Trump indicated he would issue an executive order on Monday to suspend the TikTok ban upon taking office, the app's 170 million users in the United States had their service restored. This followed a national security-based ban that took effect, causing the Chinese-owned app to cease service in the U.S. on Saturday night.

Trump had previously supported banning the platform, but on Sunday, he pledged to delay the law's implementation and allow more time for a deal to be reached. Subsequently, TikTok stated it was "restoring service." Shortly thereafter, the app began working again, and millions of users were greeted with a message thanking Trump. In a statement, the company thanked the incoming president for "providing necessary clarity and assurance" and said it would work with Trump "to seek a long-term solution that ensures TikTok remains available in the U.S." TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to attend Trump's inauguration on Monday.

Trump posted on his own social media platform, Truth Social, stating, "I asked companies to not let TikTok go out of service! I will issue an executive order on Monday extending the time before the legal ban goes into effect so we can make a deal that protects our national security." TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, had previously defied 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 went into effect on Sunday.

It is unclear what legal authority Trump has to delay the implementation of a law that has already taken effect. However, it is expected that if he issues an executive order, his administration will not enforce the ban. This is a stark reversal from his previous position. Trump had supported banning TikTok, but recently expressed "good feelings" toward the app and boasted about attracting billions of views on the platform during his presidential campaign last year. The outgoing administration of President Joe Biden had previously indicated that it would not enforce the law in its final hours, instead allowing the matter to be handled by the incoming Trump administration.

Nevertheless, TikTok ceased service on Saturday night before quickly restoring access on Sunday. The short-form video platform is immensely popular among millions of users in the U.S. and has proven to be a valuable tool for political campaigns in the U.S. to reach young voters. Under the law passed last April, the U.S. version of the app must be removed from app stores and web hosting services if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its U.S. operations. TikTok had previously argued in the Supreme Court that the law infringes on its users' free speech protections in the country.

The law had bipartisan support in Congress and was unanimously upheld by Supreme Court justices earlier this week. The issue exposes a rift between the president-elect and members of his own party on a key national security issue. His pick for Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, had publicly supported the ban. "TikTok extends the power and influence of the Chinese Communist Party into our own country, right under our noses," he said last April. But when asked by reporters if he supported Trump's efforts to reinstate the ban, he appeared to defer to the president-elect. "If I am confirmed as Secretary of State, I will work for the president," he told Punchbowl media last week.

After Trump intervened on Sunday morning, Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, broke with Trump, saying any company that helps keep TikTok online would be violating the law. "Any company that hosts, distributes, serves, or otherwise facilitates the communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars in devastating liability, not just from the Justice Department, but from securities laws, shareholder lawsuits, and state attorneys general," he wrote on social media. An executive order that violates the law could be challenged in court.

Several states have also filed lawsuits against the platform, opening the door for TikTok to potentially be banned in local jurisdictions, even if it is available nationally. Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said that while the platform was back online for existing users on Sunday, it remains unclear whether third parties—hosting platforms or app stores like Google or Apple—can support TikTok in the U.S. The app had been removed from those stores in response to the ban. "It's murky," he told the BBC. Trump's posting on Truth Media promising to protect companies from liability has opened the door for TikTok to be available again on Apple and Google. "The order will also confirm that any company that helped TikTok avoid going out of service prior to my order will not be held liable," the president-elect said on Truth Social on Sunday.

But during the Supreme Court hearing, Deputy Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar stated firmly that an executive order cannot retroactively change the law. "Whatever the new president does, it doesn't change the reality for those companies," Justice Sonia Sotomayor said at the hearing. "That's right," Prelogar said. Professor Tobias said the law does contain a provision that would allow the president to delay the ban for up to 90 days if he could demonstrate that the company had made substantial progress in mitigating national security concerns. But he said it is not clear whether those conditions have been met. "The best thing Trump could do is work with Congress, rather than potentially violating the law or leaving any question marks," he said. "Until we see the executive order, I don't know that we will know much more."