TikTok Restored Services in the US. Now What?
After a brief blackout period from late Saturday, TikTok began restoring services to US users on Sunday morning.

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We hope your withdrawal symptoms weren’t too bad — we hear Renegade dancing deprivation is no joke and we feel for you.
After a brief blackout period from late Saturday into Sunday morning, TikTok began restoring services to US users yesterday, citing assurances to it and its service providers from the Trump 2.0 administration that the “TikTok Ban” bill will go unenforced. For now, at least. Scroll, scroll, scroll while you can, TikTok addicts — because the future of the app remains murky.
Scrolling: A Nationalized Pastime?
So what the heck is happening? On Friday, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against TikTok — calling the sell-or-ban bill perfectly constitutional, and TikTok “went dark” late Saturday. Users who opened the app were greeted with a message saying the ban made services “temporarily unavailable.” The message was soon updated to say, “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.” The Biden administration, which said it wouldn’t enforce the ban on its final day in office, called the self-imposed blackout “a stunt” and critics say the whole thing looked as choreographed as anything you might find on the platform.
Technically under threat of devastating penalties that both the outgoing and incoming administrations promised not to enforce, Google and Apple removed TikTok from their respective app stores late Saturday. Oracle, TikTok’s primary US cloud computing provider, told staff to prepare to shut down TikTok’s servers, The Information reported. But by Sunday morning, the app started coming back online for its 170 million US users after Trump announced he’d promptly sign an executive order extending the deadline by 90 days following his inauguration today (where TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is receiving VIP treatment). It’s not exactly clear what happens next, but there seem to be concepts of a plan:
- “My initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the US gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the US and whichever purchase we so choose,” Trump wrote on his own social media platform, Truth Social, Sunday morning. Yes, the post indicates Trump would want the US government to own at least part of TikTok (OK, now the first amendment scholars are perking up).
- As for the rest of TikTok? Shark Tank star Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary says he’s offered $20 billion in cash for the app, Frank McCourt says he has an offer ready, CNBC reports AI startup Perplexity has submitted a merger bid with TikTok US, and key Trump ally and X owner Elon Musk likely remains in the running.
Of course, this still requires the cooperation of TikTok parent company ByteDance, a privately held company that says it is about 40% owned by its China-based founders and employees while global institutional investors such as Blackrock and General Atlantic own the other 60%. Trump has called TikTok a “spy app” in the past, and his incoming national security advisor Mike Waltz has indicated he agrees the platform represents a national security threat, since in theory the Chinese government can legally access data collected by ByteDance.
Hall Monitors: Is any of this in accordance with the actual law? Many, including at least some prominent Republicans in Congress, seem to think not. House Speaker Mike Johnson said on NBC Sunday morning that “the law is very precise, and the only way to extend that is if there is an actual deal in the works.” A deal before the deadline.