President Trump is presidential order On Monday, TikTok will be given an additional 75 days before a law banning the popular video-sharing platform takes effect.
TikTok temporarily shut down its app in the United States over the weekend, leaving American users unable to access the platform for more than 12 hours starting late Saturday night.
The brief closure comes after a law went into effect on Sunday that requires the app's China-based parent company ByteDance to exit the platform. The Supreme Court upheld the law on Friday, ruling it did not violate the First Amendment and imposing a ban.
Following the court's ruling, the Biden administration announced that it has no plans to implement the law, leaving implementation to the incoming Trump administration.
However, TikTok announced late Friday that it plans to “go into darkness,” claiming the Biden administration failed to provide “the clarity and assurances that service providers need.” The White House dismissed the company's statement as a “stunt.”
The app stopped working for users in the United States just before midnight Saturday and was removed from popular app stores.
President Trump announced plans on Sunday to issue an executive order, saying he is asking companies to “not leave TikTok in the dark.” The law allows the president to issue a 90-day extension if ByteDance is making progress toward a qualified sale.
TikTok came back online just after noon Sunday, thanking President Trump for his assurance that the app's service providers would not be penalized.
“This is a strong stance against the First Amendment and arbitrary censorship,” TikTok said in a statement posted to X. We will cooperate with the
The app is back up and running, but still faces an uncertain future. ByteDance is still expected to exit TikTok in some form.
President Trump said on Sunday that he wants the U.S. to have “50% ownership in a joint venture” in TikTok going forward.
“Without US approval, there would be no TikTok. With our approval, it would be worth hundreds of billions, perhaps trillions of dollars,” he wrote. “My first thought, therefore, is to do a joint venture between the current owners and/or the new owners, so that the United States is established between the United States and our chosen purchaser. The company will acquire 50% ownership of the joint venture.
