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Social network TikTok announced Sunday that it was working to restore access to its application in the United States, just hours after suspending it to comply with a law passed in Congress.
In a message posted on X (formerly Twitter), the group thanked future President Donald Trump for assuring internet service providers and app stores that they would escape the heavy penalties provided for by the law.The law provides for very heavy fines for these technical service providers, up to $5,000 per user for application stores.
Earlier Sunday, the future head of state had promised to issue a decree once he is inaugurated on Monday to suspend the law banning TikTok in the United States.The text adopted in 2024 opens the possibility of postponing implementation by 90 days to find a buyer, an alternative offered to TikTok’s parent company, the Chinese ByteDance, in place of the ban.
We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution to keep TikTok in the United States,” the company said.ByteDance has so far refused to sell this platform, which was launched barely ten years ago and has become essential for a large majority of young Internet users.
Donald Trump on Sunday unveiled the outlines of what appears to him to be a solution to the sensitive issue of control of TikTok’s subsidiary in the United States by Chinese interests.I would like to see a joint venture 50% American-owned,” the president-elect wrote. “Without a US deal, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions, if not trillions.”
As it stands, TikTok has disappeared from app stores and users who had already downloaded it can no longer open it.Since Friday, the group has been asking the Biden administration to send a clear signal to internet providers and app store managers to dissuade them from suspending downloads and updates.
But White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok’s calls a “ploy.” “We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take action before the Trump administration takes office on Monday.”
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Seized by TikTok as a last resort, the American Supreme Court unanimously refused on Friday to suspend the law.The nine senior judges found that Congress’s “national security” concerns were “well-founded.”US lawmakers justified the law’s passage by the need to prevent Chinese authorities from accessing American user data or manipulating opinion in the United States.
But while the platform was the subject of outright hostility from many American elected officials a year ago, the tide has since turned and a political consensus has recently emerged in favor of preserving TikTok.The postponement of the law’s entry into force is theoretically only possible if tangible elements make a sale credible.
Businessman Frank McCourt has said he is willing to put $20 billion on the table with other partners for the app’s American operations, without its powerful algorithm.On Saturday, artificial intelligence (AI) startup Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance to merge with TikTok’s U.S. subsidiary, which would value the social network at at least $50 billion.
In addition to TikTok, all of ByteDance‘s apps in the United States were taken offline, including another social network, Lemon8, to which desperate TikTokers had migrated.Many TikTokers were lamenting on Sunday the suspension of their favorite app, highly prized for the effectiveness of its algorithm in offering relevant content.
Zach King, one of the ten most followed TikTokers in the world (82 million subscribers), published a humorous video on YouTube showing him leaving TikTok for the Chinese platform Xiaohongshu (RedNote), currently the most downloaded on the Apple app store.Edison Chen, founder of TikTok competitor Clapper, told AFP that the app had been downloaded more than two million times in recent days.
Among the most downloaded apps in the United States on Sunday were several VPN companies, software that can deceive websites and app stores about a user’s geographic location.
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