TikTok has begun restoring service to the app in the US after Donald Trump said he would sign an executive order pausing its ban.
A law signed by President Joe Biden last April required ByteDance, TikTok‘s China-based parent company, to sell the app to a non-Chinese owner by Sunday or face a ban.
Some users reported that they lost access on Saturday night, and Americans opening the app on Sunday have been greeted with a message saying they “can’t use” TikTok “for now”.
But in a post on Truth Social ahead of his inauguration, Mr Trump said he would issue an executive order handing the app an extension to find a new owner.
“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark,” the president-elect wrote, adding the order will allow time “so that we can make a deal to protect our national security”.
He then confirmed that “there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order” and said: “Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations.”
TikTok later said it had started restoring service on Sunday, thanking the president for clarifying to service providers “that they will face no penalties providing TikTok”.
It added: “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.”
Ahead of the ban coming into effect, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok’s plans to shut down the app a “stunt” and said actions enforcing the ban would “fall to the next administration”.
Mr Trump also indicated on Truth Social what a possible deal could look like, saying he would prefer the US “to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture” with ByteDance or a new owner.
“Without US approval, there is no TikTok,” he said. “With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.”
On Saturday, the president-elect told NBC News‘ Meet The Press moderator Kristen Welker that TikTok would “most likely” be given a 90-day pause from the ban to find a new owner.
Under the bipartisan law on TikTok – signed by Mr Biden – the president can grant a one-time extension of 90 days under three conditions:
• There is a path to divestiture of the app
• There is “significant progress” toward executing a sale
• There are in place “the relevant binding legal agreements to enable execution of such qualified divestiture during the period of such extension”
No legal agreements on the sale of TikTok to a non-Chinese owner have been made public, and Mr Trump did not say on Saturday if he was aware of any recent progress toward a sale.
CNBC later reported Perplexity AI made a bid for the app’s parent company on Saturday to allow it to merge with TikTok US and create a new entity, which would also include New Capital Partners.
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During his first term in the White House, Mr Trump attempted to ban TikTok as well as the Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat but was blocked by the courts. It was later revoked by Mr Biden.
Last year, he briefly met with the app’s chief executive Shou Zi Chew, who will attend the inauguration on Monday.
He’s expected to sit with fellow tech executives Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, a Trump transition official told NBC.
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