TikTok is working to restore its services in the United States after the popular video app was unavailable for nearly a day. The company says that US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to issue an executive order to make the app operational again.
In a post on X, TikTok thanked Trump for assuring internet service providers and app stores that they would not impose the harsh penalties they had anticipated. A recent law that was supposed to curb the platform includes fines of up to $5,000 per user for app stores.
On Sunday, the social media platform was no longer available to its 170 million US users after a law went into effect banning the app from continuing to operate. Chinese company ByteDance owns TikTok. The US fears that Chinese officials are misusing Americans’ data. TikTok’s US website was back online for some US users later.
Earlier Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump said he plans to issue an executive order on Monday that would delay the law’s implementation for 90 days. The company said, “We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution to keep TikTok in the United States. ”
ByteDance has so far refused to sell its successful platform, launched ten years ago. However, President-elect Trump announced on Sunday that he wanted to turn the company into a 50 percent American-owned joint venture. For several years now, the company has also had a deal with Oracle under pressure from the US government, which means that data from American users runs through Oracle servers.
With the impending ban, potential buyers for TikTok’s American branch also emerged. According to sources from CNBC and TechCrunch, Perplexity AI was one of the parties interested in taking over the company. A formal offer was also reportedly made, although owner Bytedance previously stated that it does not intend to sell its stake in the app.
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