At some point earlier than his inauguration, president-elect Donald Trump pledged to situation a day one government order supposed to avoid wasting TikTok, regardless of being a foremost proponent of a ban throughout his first time period.
Posting to Reality Social on Jan. 19, Trump wrote that he was trying to “lengthen the time frame earlier than the regulation’s prohibitions take impact” and foster a “deal to guard our nationwide safety,” suggesting that he intends to dealer a three way partnership that might end in an American firm taking 50 % possession. He referred to as on firms to “not let TikTok go darkish” and mentioned he may “verify that there shall be no legal responsibility for any firm that helped preserve TikTok from going darkish earlier than my order.”
TikTok shortly responded, saying it was working to reinstate service following Trump’s statements. The app was up and operating for current customers shortly after, though it nonetheless stays off U.S. app shops. “We thank President Trump for offering the required readability and assurance to our service suppliers that they are going to face no penalties offering TikTok to over 170 million People and permitting over 7 million small companies to thrive,” wrote the platform on their official coverage account on X.
Regardless of Trump solely promising to work on saving the app, and never but bestowed with government energy, a brand new pop-up notification on the platform reads:
Welcome again!
Thanks on your persistence and assist. On account of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is again within the U.S.!
You may proceed to create, share, and uncover all of the belongings you love on TikTok.
Credit score: Screenshot / TikTok
In a reversal from his earlier stance and government orders throughout his first presidential time period, Trump has turned in favor of the China-owned firm over the past yr. Final month, the president-elect despatched an amicus temporary to the U.S. Supreme Court docket arguing he’s uniquely positioned to avoid wasting TikTok and defend the nation’s nationwide safety aims, asking the court docket to grant a keep on the ban. The court docket later upheld the ban.
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Trump and tech’s greatest names have been courting one another’s favor for months, particularly following Trump’s marketing campaign victory. On Jan. 17, TikTok CEO Shou Chew posted a public message to customers by which he thanked Trump for his efforts to reinstate the app. “This can be a sturdy stand for the First Modification and towards arbitrary censorship,” mentioned Chew. “We’re grateful and happy to have the assist of a president who actually understands our platform — one who has used TikTok to precise his personal ideas and views, connecting with the world and producing greater than 60 billion views of his content material within the course of.”
Not lengthy after the app went darkish, TikTok altered an in-app pop up message alerting customers to the ban. The unique message learn:
We remorse {that a} U.S. regulation banning TikTok will take impact on January 19 and drive us to make our companies briefly unavailable.
We’re working to revive our service within the U.S. as quickly as potential, and we recognize your assist. Please keep tuned.
The revised notification learn:
A regulation banning TikTok has been enacted within the U.S. Sadly, meaning you possibly can’t use TikTok for now.
We’re lucky that President Trump has indicated that he’ll work with us on an answer to reinstate TikTok as soon as he takes workplace. Please keep tuned!
The pop-up was then eliminated.
It is not simply TikTok, both. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Tesla/ X proprietor Elon Musk, who is about to rating an advisory place underneath the brand new administration, have additionally publicly praised Trump and his coverage positions, notably surrounding his controversial stances on content material moderation and free speech. Meta just lately overhauled its moderation and DEI insurance policies within the title of a extra “free speech” supportive platform, abolishing its range mandates and loosening its hate speech insurance policies to incorporate beforehand banned types of content material. And OpenAI’s Sam Altman has defended his determination to donate hundreds of thousands in private contributions to Trump’s inaugural fund, in response to a letter from U.S. Senators hinting at potential corruption.
A lot of Large Tech’s inside circle, together with Chew, are anticipated to seem on the inaugural swearing-in ceremony on Monday.
UPDATE: Jan. 19, 2025, 1:58 p.m. EST This piece was up to date to incorporate a brand new in-app notification added shortly after TikTok reinstated service.