A day before his inauguration, president-elect Donald Trump promised to issue a single executive order aimed at saving TikTok, despite being a major proponent of the ban during his first term.
Posted on Truth Social on Jan. 19, Trump wrote that he was looking to “extend the time before the ban goes into effect” and promote “an agreement to protect our national security,” suggesting that he intends to trade more. that would result in an American company taking 50 percent ownership. He asked companies to “not let TikTok go dark” and said that he “can guarantee that there will be no liability to any company that helps TikTok not go black before my order.”
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TikTok responded quickly, saying it was working restoring service following Trump’s statements. The app has been up and running for existing users for a while now, though it’s still not available in US app stores. “We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will not face sanctions that provide TikTok to more than 170 million Americans and allow more than 7 million small businesses to thrive,” he wrote the platform in their official policy account on X.
Despite Trump only promising to work to preserve the system, and not yet being given executive power, a new pop-up notice on the site reads:
Welcome!
Thank you for your patience and support. Thanks to the efforts of President Trump, TikTok is back in the US!
You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok.
Credit: Screenshot / TikTok
Reversing his previous stance and executive orders during his first term as president, Trump has turned to a Chinese-owned company over the past year. Last month, the president-elect sent a brief to the US Supreme Court saying he was in a special position to save TikTok and protect national security objectives, asking the court to allow the ban. The court later upheld the ban.
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Trump’s big names and technology have been in love for months, especially following Trump’s campaign victory. On Jan. 17, TikTok CEO Shou Chew sent a public message to users in which he thanked Trump for his efforts to restore the app. “This is a strong defense of the First Amendment and against illegal surveillance,” said Chew. “We are grateful and happy to have the support of a president who truly understands our platform – who has used TikTok to express his thoughts and ideas, connect with the world and generate more than 60 billion views of his content in the process.”
Shortly after the app went dark, TikTok changed the in-app message warning users of the ban. The first message reads:
We regret that the US law banning TikTok will go into effect on January 19 and force us to make our services temporarily unavailable.
We are working to restore our service in the US as soon as possible, and we appreciate your support. Please stay tuned.
The revised notification reads as follows:
A law banning TikTok has been passed in the US Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok yet.
We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to restore TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!
The pop-up was then removed.
It’s not just TikTok, either. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Tesla/X owner Elon Musk, who is set to get an advisory position under the new administration, have also publicly praised Trump and his policy positions, especially regarding his controversial stance on content moderation and free speech. . Meta recently revised its moderation and DEI policies in the name of a supportive “freedom of speech” platform, ended its diversity mandate and relaxed its hate speech policies to include previously banned content types. And OpenAI’s Sam Altman has defended his decision to give millions in personal donations to Trump’s primary fund, responding to a letter from US Senators alleging possible corruption.
Most of the Big Tech artists, including Chew, are expected to appear at the swearing-in ceremony on Monday.
INSIDE: Jan. 19, 2025, 1:58 pm EST This piece has been updated to include a new in-app notification that was added shortly after TikTok’s service was restored.