TikTok had been removed from the app stores when it briefly went dark last month amid compliance with a law passed to ban it.
On Thursday night, Apple and Google announced that TikTok was once again accessible through their U.S. app stores. On January 18, just hours before a ban on the social media app was about to take effect, TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese technology giant ByteDance, vanished from both U.S. shops.
Up until Thursday, it was still not available for download on Google's Play Store or Apple's App Store. Users who had already downloaded it, however, could keep using it. Apple and Google only announced the app's availability on Thursday night.
President Joe Biden approved a law in April requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or face blocking in the US on January 19. This law led to the ban, which has its roots in national security concerns. On January 17, following several appeals, the Supreme Court affirmed the law, allowing it to be repealed nationwide.
Biden's government said only days before he stepped down that the Trump administration, which was scheduled to take office on January 20, would be responsible for enforcing the legislation.
After blocking it the previous evening, TikTok said it had restored service to the US on January 19, citing promises made by new President Donald Trump to preserve the app. Before the law's prohibitions take effect, Trump had said he would issue an executive order "to extend the time so that we can make a deal to protect our national security."
"The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order," Trump stated on Truth Social.
Following service restoration last month, TikTok said it would collaborate with the White House to find a long-term solution and thanked "President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties for providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive" in a statement.
The ownership of the app and the legal status are still up in the air.
Trump floated enacting a provision of the law that states the president can grant a one-time extension of 90 days before the law takes effect, but only "if the President certifies to Congress that... a path to executing a qualified divestiture has been identified" and if "evidence of significant progress towards executing such qualified divestiture has been produced." This was before the Jan. 19 declaration that the law would not yet take effect.
TikTok's future in the US is still somewhat uncertain because the 90-day extension was never formally implemented; Trump is likely working out the specifics to keep the app alive in the US.
Regarding whether or not the Chinese-owned app should be accessible in the US, Trump and Biden seemed to waver in their positions.
At one point, Trump led the charge to outlaw it.
"As far as TikTok is concerned, we're banning them from the United States," he informed reporters in July 2020. "I can do it with an executive order or that."
He signed an executive order on August 6, 2020, to prohibit TikTok after 45 days. Due to legal hurdles, TikTok got an injunction against the ruling in late September. Four months later, Biden overturned the injunction when he took office.
Additionally, Biden seemed to waver in his position, shifting the blame back to Trump after he signed the legislation that eventually led to the app's suspension.
Republicans and Democrats alike were in favour of banning the app because they were worried about how it gathered user data and whether its Chinese owner posed a national security risk.
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