President Donald Trump delayed the implementation of a ban on the Chinese-owned social media platform until April 5th, allowing TikTok to reappear on the US app stores of Google and Apple. The popular app, which has over 170 million US users, went silent momentarily last month as the ban deadline loomed. Trump then issued an executive order providing TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with a rule prohibiting the app until it is sold.
According to Bloomberg, which broke the story of TikTok's comeback to US app stores, the decision to make the app available again was made after the Trump administration promised Apple and Google that they would not be held accountable for permitting downloads and that the ban would not yet be implemented.
Former President Joe Biden signed the restriction into law after it was approved by Congress on a bipartisan vote. To avoid an outright ban, it ordered TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the platform's US edition to a neutral third party. The Biden administration argued that China could utilize TikTok for eavesdropping and political manipulation. When the app resumed operations in the US last month, millions of users received a popup message thanking Trump by name.
Trump has stated that he wants to solve with the Chinese business that follows the spirit rather than the wording of the law, even floating the possibility of TikTok being jointly owned. "What I'm thinking of saying to someone is buy it, give half to the US, and we'll give you a permit," he remarked recently during an artificial intelligence news conference. He said that he would be willing to sell the program to billionaire Elon Musk, who heads the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, and Larry Ellison, a co-founder of Oracle. Jimmy Donaldson, AKA MrBeast, the world's most popular YouTuber, has also claimed he is in the running after several investors approached him after he expressed interest on social media.
