TikTok returned to the Apple and Google app stores Thursday evening after President Trump delayed the ban on the video sharing app last month.
The Chinese-owned app was removed from the stores after it briefly shut down in the U.S. to abide by a law that required TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to divest from the platform or face a Jan. 19 ban. TikTok restored service hours later, but it did not return to the app stores for users to download.
The law in question, which the Supreme Court upheld days before the ban was slated to take effect, was put on hold when Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to give the company an additional 75 days to divest or sell.
Former President Biden signed the bipartisan bill into law in April of last year, which cited national security concerns regarding ByteDance’s ownership. The law gave TikTok’s parent company 270 days to divest from the app or face a ban.
The law, formally known as the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” made it illegal for U.S. app stores — like ones operated by Google or Apple — and web-hosting services to distribute TikTok to its users.
The Hill reached out to Apple and Google as well as TikTok and the Justice Department for comment about TikTok’s Thursday return to the app stores.
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In his Jan. 20 order, Trump instructed his attorney general to not enforce the law so that the administration could “determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans.”
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Since then, Trump tapped Vice President Vance, alongside national security adviser Mike Waltz, to shepherd a deal to potentially sell the app. The president also created a sovereign wealth fund and floated the idea of using it to purchase a controlling stake in the popular app to avert a national shutdown.
“TikTok — we’re going to be doing something, perhaps, with TikTok, and perhaps not, if we make the right deal we’ll do it, otherwise we won’t, but I have the right to do that,” Trump said about the fund. “And we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever will make. Or if we do a partnership with very wealthy people. A lot of options, but we could put that as an example of the fund.”
A particularly wealthy person in Trump’s orbit — Elon Musk — has stated he has no plans to purchase TikTok.
Former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary, as well as tech giants like Microsoft and Oracle, have submitted proposals to ByteDance or engaged in talks with the White House about the app.
