TikTok has restored its services to users in the United States after shutting down for about 12 hours.
The social media platform reactivated its services to US users on Sunday, attributing its return to President-elect Donald Trump’s move to save the app by delaying the enforcement of the ban.
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In a welcome notification sent to users in the country, TikTok said, “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”
On Saturday evening, TikTok suspended its services in the United States, cutting off access to the app for about 170 million users nationwide.
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The action followed the US Supreme Court’s ruling, which upheld the law forcing ByteDance to sell the subsidiary company.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that users who attempted to access the application encountered a notification stating, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
But the app also expressed interest in working with Mr Trump to reverse the decision.
“We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned,” the message read.
However, Mr Trump promised earlier on Sunday that he would issue an executive order after his inauguration on Monday to delay enforcement of the divest-or-ban law.
Clarifying his stance in the Truth Social post, he expressed his intention to bring back the app as soon as possible, with or without a deal to sell it.
In a post on X, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, responded to this, saying Mr Trump’s post had provided “the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties for providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans.”
Access to TikTok’s app and web page began to return for US users hours after this post.
While access to the app has been restored for many US users, it is still unavailable for download on Apple and Android app stores.
