WASHINGTON — TikTok has begun restoring service to users in the United States following a temporary, self-imposed shutdown that lasted less than a day. The company announced Sunday that it was preparing to restore access after President-elect Donald Trump vowed to try to suspend the executive order ban on his first day in office.
TikTok said in a statement: “To bring TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allow over 7 million small businesses to thrive, we provide necessary clarity and assurance that service providers will not be penalized. I thank President Trump for providing this.” “This is a strong position in support of the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution to keep TikTok in the United States.” ”
TikTok app owner ByteDance voluntarily suspended its service in the United States hours before Sunday’s deadline, cutting off access for tens of millions of users following this week’s Supreme Court ruling. supported the law It was effectively banned due to concerns about relations with China.
A law passed by Congress last year gave TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance until Jan. 19 to exit TikTok or be cut off from its U.S. app store and hosting services. TikTok challenged the law in court, saying a sale was impossible, but the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the move on Friday.
President Trump posted on social media on Sunday that he was bringing back TikTok, first writing “SAVE TIKTOK” and then vowing to issue an executive order on Monday extending the timeframe for the law to go into effect. Additionally, he said companies that helped prevent TikTok’s blackout before the order took effect are not responsible.
“Americans have a right to watch Monday’s exciting inauguration and other events and conversations,” he wrote. “I want the US to have 50% ownership in the joint venture. That way we can save TikTok, keep it in good hands and have a say. Without US approval. , Tik Tok doesn’t exist. With our approval, it’s worth hundreds of billions, maybe trillions of dollars.”
The court’s judgment states: anti-sale law The government says it has not violated the free speech rights of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States, and that the platform could be used by China to collect vast amounts of sensitive information about Americans. agree with the position of
Andy Bao/AP
The Biden administration said enforcement of the law would be left to the incoming Trump administration, but the company itself suspended itself just before the midnight Sunday deadline.
Users in the United States who opened the app late Saturday night were greeted with a message headlined, “Sorry, TikTok is currently unavailable.”
The message reads, “A law has been enacted in the United States to ban TikTok.” “Unfortunately, that means you won’t be able to use TikTok for now. We’re fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he intends to work with him on a solution to bring TikTok back after he takes office. We look forward to it.” Please!”
This app is no longer available in the Apple Store or Google Play Store. CBS News has reached out to TikTok for comment.
President Trump’s next national security adviser, Mike Walz says, “Standing up to Margaret Brennan and the nation.”” On Sunday, the president-elect announced that he had met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and “agreed to cooperate on this matter.”
“We can create apps that protect Americans,” Walz said. “Let me tell you, I don’t want the FBI or the U.S. government to monitor every keystroke or see every password, and I don’t want the Chinese Communist Party to either. But we also , we also want an app that 170 million Americans obviously really enjoy. We were able to get that message across in a very powerful way during the Trump campaign.”
TikTok announced Friday that it would be “forced to go dark” starting Sunday unless the Biden administration guarantees service providers that the law will not be enforced. The White House called the appeal a “stunt” and said the company should raise its concerns with the Trump administration.
“There is no reason for TikTok or any other company to take action in the days leading up to the Trump administration’s inauguration on Monday,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
On Sunday, the TikTok app remained accessible internationally, and there was no sign that the app had gone dark in the U.S. for users overseas. It was restricted and there was no clear official signage to indicate what users were accessing.
Even if President-elect Trump refuses to enforce the ban, the law still exists and companies like Apple and Google could be penalized for violations in the future. President Trump previously vowed to “save” TikTok and said on Saturday he was considering options to extend the law’s implementation deadline.
“The 90-day extension is appropriate, so it’s most likely going to happen,” he said in a phone interview, adding: “If we decide to extend it, we’ll probably make an announcement on Monday.”
The law includes provisions that allow short-term extensions while a sale is in progress.
Supreme Court in progress January 10th altercationTikTok’s lawyer Noel Francisco warned that the platform would be shut down if the law goes into effect, adding that any timeline for the sale would be “unprecedented” given the Chinese government’s opposition to algorithmic sales. “It will be extremely difficult,” he said. This powers the platform by tailoring video recommendations to each user.
“As I understand it, we will be pitch black,” Francisco said.
But even if something without TikTok’s algorithms were eventually sold, it would take “years” for a new team of engineers to rebuild it, and it would be “a fundamentally different platform.” Francisco says. He said that if the company cannot legally share user data with ByteDance, users in the U.S. will not be able to view content from other parts of the world, and vice versa.
The bipartisan legislation was included in a foreign aid package, quickly passed by Congress, and signed by President Biden last April. TikTok and ByteDance challenged the law The following month, it called it an “unusual and unconstitutional assertion of power” based on “speculative and analytically flawed concerns about data security and content manipulation” and would stifle the speech of millions of Americans. He accused it of being.
A federal appeals court upheld the statute in a December ruling, stating that the U.S. government “acted solely to protect freedom from foreign adversaries and to limit the ability of adversaries to collect data about people within the United States.” said. In the subsequent appeals court rejected TikTok is seeking to delay the law’s implementation pending review by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court took up the case with extraordinary speed after TikTok asked a judge for a stay order. courtroom expressed an opinion One week after the hearing and two days before the law takes effect.
“There is no question that TikTok provides a unique and far-reaching source of expression, participation, and community for more than 170 million Americans. “We determined that the sale was necessary to address national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationships with foreign adversaries,” the court’s opinion said.
The justices cited Congress’ finding that companies can be required to hand over data to the Chinese government under Chinese law.
“The government had sufficient reason to name TikTok,” the court said.
“Nothing permanent or irreversible will happen,” Attorney General Elizabeth Prelauger said in arguments Sunday. The law provides TikTok with the power to lift restrictions if a sale occurs after that date.
“Congress expected something like a game of chicken to happen. ByteDance said we couldn’t do it, China would never let us do it. But then the pressure mounted. I think once these restrictions go into effect, things will fundamentally change,” Prelogar said.
In a video statement after the Supreme Court issued its ruling, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew seemed confident that the app has a future even under the Trump administration. . He thanked the president-elect for his efforts in finding a solution that would allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States “for many years to come.”
President Trump, who tried to ban TikTok during his first term citing national security concerns, announced Friday that he had discussed TikTok with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Chinese summary of the phone call does not mention that it was a topic of discussion.
There’s no long-term certainty about TikTok’s future in the U.S. unless it’s sold or Congress overturns the law. Companies like Apple and Google could face high costs in the future if President Trump or a future president refuses to enforce the law. You could face heavy fines.
“Wouldn’t it be against the law if we didn’t close on the 19th?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Preloger. “Yes,” Preloger said.
“And no matter what the new president does, the reality for these companies remains the same,” Sotomayor continued, referring to penalties facing app stores and web hosting services.
“That’s right,” Preloger said, adding that there is a five-year statute of limitations.
Haley Ott and Emily Mae Czachor contributed to this report.