TikTok restores services in the US after Trump’s promise

TikTok is resuming service to its 170 million US users after President-elect Donald Trump said he would issue an executive order suspending the app when he takes office on Monday.

On Saturday night, the Chinese app stopped working for US users after a law went into effect banning it on national security grounds.

But after Trump promised on Sunday to delay implementation of the law and give more time to strike a deal, TikTok said it was in the process of “restoring service.”

He thanked the president-elect for “providing the necessary clarity and reassurance” and said the company would work with Trump “on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”

Posting on Truth Social, a social media platform that owns, Trump said Sunday: “I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay in the dark! I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the time period before the law’s bans go into effect so we can make a deal to protect our national security.”

TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, previously flouted a law requiring it to sell its US operations to avoid the ban. The law was upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday and took effect on Sunday.

It’s unclear what legal authority Trump would have to delay implementation of a law already in place. But his government is expected not to enforce the ban if it issues an executive order.

For its part, President Joe Biden’s administration had already said it would not implement the law in its final hours in office and would instead let the process play out under the new Trump administration.

But TikTok still suspended its services on Saturday evening, before quickly restoring access on Sunday.

The short-form video platform is extremely popular with many millions of users in the US. It has also proved a valuable tool for American political campaigns to reach younger voters.

Trump previously supported banning TikTokbut recently professed a “warm spot” for the app, touting the billions of views he says his videos on the platform drew during last year’s presidential campaign.

Under the law passed last April, the US version of the app was to be removed from app stores and web hosting services unless its Chinese owner ByteDance sold its US operations.

TikTok argued before the Supreme Court that the law violated free speech protections for its users in the country.

The law passed with the support of both Republicans and Democrats in Congress and was unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court justices earlier this week.

The issue exposes the disagreements on key national security issues between the president-elect and members of his own party. His choice for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has vocally supported the ban.

“TikTok has expanded the power and influence of the Chinese Communist Party into our own nation, right under our noses,” he said last April.

After Trump intervened Sunday morning, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas, broke with Trump, saying any company that helped TikTok stay online would be breaking the law.

“Any company that hosts, distributes, serves or otherwise facilitates the communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars in punitive damages under the law, not only from the Department of Justice, but also under securities law, the lawsuits of shareholders and state AGs,” he wrote on social media.