New York – Google Play said it restored TikTok to the US app store on Thursday, following President Donald Trump’s promise to save the app and an executive action delaying the implementation of a ban on the wildly popular social media platform.
Bloomberg and CNBC also reported that Apple will reinstate the app in its app store on Thursday evening. TikTok was available in app stores as of Thursday evening, according to CNN, which attempted to download the app on multiple phones.
TikTok’s uncertain future stems from a law signed by then-President Joe Biden in April that gave China’s ByteDance 270 days to sell the app to an owner in the United States or one of its allies or face a ban based on US national security concerns. On the day before the blackout, the Supreme Court upheld the ban.
TikTok went down for about 14 hours in January, but it quickly returned thanks to promises made by then-President-elect Donald Trump to keep the platform operational in the United States.
However, the app’s 175 million users encountered at least one issue: it was unavailable on the Apple and Google Play stores as of that January weekend, along with Lemon8 and CapCut, which are also owned by TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance.
Apple previously stated that TikTok was removed from the app store due to the ban, but the app remained available to customers who had already downloaded it.
Tech companies faced consequences
Trump indicated before taking office that he would sign an executive order delaying the ban’s implementation, and TikTok credited him with bringing the app back.
“I 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,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on January 19. He also stated that he would not hold TikTok’s technology partners, including Apple, Google, and cloud computing company Oracle, responsible for continuing to make the app available until he signed the order.
The law only required TikTok’s technology partners, including Oracle, which hosts TikTok’s content in the United States, and Apple and Google, which host the app on their app stores, to discontinue support for the app or face fines of up to $5,000 per person who has access to the platform beginning Sunday.
Trump took office the following day, on January 20. He signed the executive order later that day, giving TikTok an additional 75 days to find a new owner.
Trump’s promises to save TikTok
According to the action, the 75-day delay will allow the Trump administration to “determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly manner that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans.”
Trump informed reporters that he changed his mind about TikTok because he “got to use it.”
“And remember, TikTok is largely about kids, especially young kids,” Trump said in the Oval Office when asked what changed his mind. “If China is going to get information about young kids out of it, to be honest, I think we have bigger problems than that.”
He also told reporters that the action he signed on TikTok gave him the option to “sell it or close it.”
“I have the right to either sell it or close it, and we’ll make that determination,” he said.
