TikTok officially went “dark” in the US on Sunday, but has since beenafter President-elect Trump said he would sign an executive order on Monday to delay the ban.
The app wasdue to national security concerns over potential data sharing between the app’s parent company ByteDance and the Chinese Government.
To avoid the ban, ByteDance needed to sell its U.S. operations to a non-Chinese entity. It did not do this.
TikTok restored
On Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump said he will “issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security”.
In the statement, Trump also suggested a portion of TikTok being owned by the U.S. Government, saying: “By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up. Without US approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.”
TikTok soon released a statement saying it was in the process of restoring service.
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“We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive,” it said.
“It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”
Executive order
If Trump is to pass an executive order when he assumes office this week, it would not provide a permanent solution to the app now being in breach of an act of Congress.
The current act empowers the President to pause the ban for up to 90 days if there’s evidence TikTok is working towards a sale in the U.S. Should the 90-day period expire, Trump’s executive order and TikTok’s validity in the U.S. would likely face legal challenges.
For the demands on TikTok’s sale be permanently reversed, it must come as a result of Congress reversing the bill they just passed.
