In accordance with Trump’s announced executive order, TikTok has restored service for US customers

Just hours after going dark due to a government ban, which President-elect Donald Trump claimed he would attempt to halt by executive order on his first day in office, TikTok brought service back to its users in the United States on Sunday.

In order to give TikTok’s parent firm, which is based in China, more time to find an authorized buyer before the ban goes into full force, Trump stated that he intended to issue the order. As millions of TikTok users in the United States woke up to find they could no longer access the TikTok app or platform, he made the announcement on his Truth Social account.

Those who signed up, however, received a message by Sunday afternoon thanking them and the president-elect for their support.

The statement said, “TikTok is back in the U.S. thanks to President Trump’s efforts.”

Due to a federal statute requiring parent company ByteDance to sell its U.S. business by Sunday, TikTok said that it had shut down the platform late Saturday. TikTok was also taken down from Google and Apple’s online stores. Steep fines are permitted by the statute, which was passed in April with broad bipartisan backing.

The TikTok app was still not accessible for download in the Apple and Google app stores, despite the fact that the firm that operates the app in the United States stated on X that the actions Trump described on Sunday provide “the required clarification and guarantee that our service providers won’t be penalized.”

Market research firm Emarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg stated, “For both TikTok and incoming President Donald Trump, it was an ingenious marketing ploy.” “TikTok immediately stopped operations to show how unpopular the ban was among its users.”

What led to TikTok’s ban? What is there for Trump to do?

Due to national security concerns, the regulation that went into force on Sunday mandated that ByteDance sever its connections with the platform’s U.S. operations. However, if a successful sale was in progress, the statute permitted the current president to issue a 90-day extension.

Despite several offers from investors, ByteDance has stated that it would not be selling. In addition to “Verifying that any business that assisted in preventing TikTok from going offline prior to my order will not be held liable,” Trump claimed that his order would “prolong the time frame until the prohibitions of the legislation become operative.”

The legal implications of Trump’s anticipated move were not immediately apparent because the statute went into effect the day before Trump returned to the White House and the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the ban on Friday. Wisconsin Republican Representative Mike Gallagher, who wrote the measure, stated on Fox News Sunday that “there is no extension” for TikTok.

He stated, “As the author of the measure, I can assure you that the extension fell inside the 270-day timetable, which ended this morning at 12:01 a.m.” He said that an extension would only be granted if the president certified that there were “legally binding documents” indicating a divestment was imminent.

“I believe Trump can at least argue that the language is intended to cover any president,” Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, stated.

A number of senators, including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, still support the sale-or-ban measure. On Sunday, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton cautioned businesses against offering technical assistance to TikTok.

Cotton posted on X, “Any business that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise helps communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars in crippling liability under the law.” “Consider it.”

According to Kirk McGill, a constitutional and commercial law lawyer, Trump does not have the legal right to halt the ban, but it is unlikely that the matter would be heard in court in the time it could take TikTok to find a buyer.