TikTok was gone. It's back with a Trump lifeline

On Sunday, TikTok users successful the United States were momentarily silenced aft the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a caller law that requires the societal media app’s Chinese proprietor to merchantability TikTok’s U.S. concern oregon look a nationwide ban.

Within hours of the shutdown however, President-elect Donald Trump announced that helium planned to contented an enforcement bid that would assistance ByteDance, TikTok’s genitor company, a 90-day hold to find an approved purchaser earlier the fashionable video-sharing level goes acheronian permanently.

Trump, who volition beryllium sworn into bureau connected Monday, announced his determination connected his societal media site, Truth Social, saying that his bid would “extend the play of clip earlier the law’s prohibitions instrumentality effect” and “confirm that determination volition beryllium nary liability for immoderate institution that helped support TikTok from going acheronian earlier my order.”

TikTok instantly announced that it was successful the process of restoring the platform. “We convey President Trump for providing the indispensable clarity and assurance to our work providers that they volition look nary penalties providing TikTok to implicit 170 cardinal Americans and allowing implicit 7 cardinal tiny businesses to thrive,” the institution said in a statement.

By midmorning Sunday, the app was backmost online.

The ban, arsenic enacted, would marque it amerciable for app stores specified arsenic Apple and Google Play to administer TikTok oregon contented updates to the societal media app. Companies that don’t abide look civilian penalties of $5,000 per user.

Facing a shutdown, millions of the app’s users expressed disbelief, sadness, choler and defiance, with galore posting farewell messages and others mock funerals; portion critics person argued that this is simply a stroke to escaped speech.

“I’m upset,” said Joey Soboleski II, a 26-year-old model, histrion and photographer. “I person my conspiracy theories arsenic to wherefore it’s being taken down. Silencing oregon suppressing antithetic ideas and points of presumption connected beingness that radical are capable to stock without interference of censorship, that is what the existent occupation is.”

The Daily Mail, the British media outlet, rapidly announced it was launching a caller hub for short-form video contented connected its homepage successful an effort to capable the TikTok void.

TikTok’s viability had been uncertain since then-President Trump moved to unopen it down successful 2020, citing nationalist information concerns. Trump and others raised the imaginable that TikTok proprietor ByteDance could assistance the Chinese authorities by sharing the information it collects from its much than 100 cardinal American users, embedding malicious bundle successful the app oregon helping to dispersed disinformation.

Kate Ruane of the Center for Democracy & Technology called the precocious court’s determination “unprecedented“ successful a statement, saying that the prohibition “harms the escaped look of hundreds of millions of TikTok users successful this state and astir the world. Individuals usage the app to create, to stock information, to get their news, to remark connected existent issues and beforehand their businesses — that’s precisely the benignant of look the First Amendment is intended to protect.”

Numerous businesses person argued that TikTok was a important alternate to Instagram and YouTube shorts that helped turn their brands and thrust commerce.

“For brands, businesses, artists and creators, TikTok is much than conscionable a platform, it’s a launchpad for careers, a improvement hub for taste trends and a captious transmission for connecting with consumers. TikTok has go indispensable to euphony artists’ careers — deliberation Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan,” said Vishal Ramakrishnan, main concern officer, Round Group, a planetary selling tech company, successful a statement.

Before leaving office, President Biden had emphasized that helium did not program to enforce the prohibition earlier the caller medication took office.

Staff writer Andrea Chang contributed to this report.