TikTok back online after half a day in the USA, threats from Congress

After TikTok was offline in the USA for around half a day, the app is now available again. Anyone opening the video application will now be greeted by a "Welcome back!" and an explanation that the next US President Donald Trump is responsible for the return. This is reported by The Verge, which also shows a screenshot of the new message. A few hours earlier, Trump had declared that he would ensure that TikTok operator ByteDance was given a reprieve immediately after taking office. However, the aim is still to sell the application. Although ByteDance has always rejected this sale, the company has allegedly decided that this is sufficient.

Confidence at ByteDance, skepticism at Apple and Google

Trump had also assured companies that they – would not be held accountable for supporting TikTok, contrary to the ban law. According to The Verge, this assurance was sufficient for TikTok's hosting provider Oracle and the CDN provider Akamai to make their own services available to TikTok again. The situation is different for Google and Apple. TikTok is not available in the US app stores of these companies. They state that the app cannot currently be offered or that its download is "paused". However, ByteDance is confident and has assured advertisers that campaigns will be resumed soon.

Donald Trump has also stated that a "deal to protect national security" is being sought under his aegis, in which ByteDance could retain 50 percent of the shares after all. The aim would be a joint venture in which the USA would receive the other half. This could save TikTok and make it even more valuable. The Verge also points out that TikTok recently openly backed Trump to avert the ban after all. ByteDance had previously failed before the Supreme Court and had thus exhausted its legal remedies against the impending ban. From a purely legal perspective, nothing has changed between the blocking of the app on Sunday night and its opening on Sunday afternoon.

Threats from the Senate

Meanwhile, there are sharp threats from the US Senate towards the companies that are still supporting TikTok. Two senators from Donald Trump's Republican Party, Tom Cotton and Pete Ricketts, have declared that there is no legal basis for any kind of extension of the TikTok sales period. ByteDance would have to agree to a sale to prevent the freeze. Any company that supported TikTok anyway could face fines of "hundreds of billions of dollars", Cotton later threatened on the short message service X and warned: "Think about it."

ByteDance itself had blocked TikTok for users in the USA on Sunday night before the ban law came into force. This required the Chinese company to sell the US offshoot of the popular application and set a deadline for this, which expired on Sunday. Although the law grants the current US president the right to grant a grace period, this is only possible if the sale goes ahead. ByteDance has always refused to do so. Although Joe Biden gave assurances before the weekend that he would not enforce the ban, the app then went offline, only to return after Donald Trump made the same promise.

(mho)