Amid ongoing discussions about its future in the U.S., TikTok has now been reinstated for download in both the Google Play and Apple App stores in America, after both companies received official assurances that they will not be fined for facilitating access to the technically banned app.
Under the Biden-approved “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” TikTok was required to be sold to a U.S.-based owner by January 19th, or it would be banned in the region. No sale was arranged, but following his inauguration on January 20th, President Trump signed an executive order that grants TikTok an additional 75 days to arrange a deal that meets the bill’s requirements.
Though, technically, the order in itself doesn’t nullify the previously approved law. Trump has offered further assurances to TikTok’s U.S.-based providers that they won’t be penalized for violating the bill, which was enough for Oracle, which has continued to support the operations of the app, ensuring that it remains available to users who’d already downloaded it onto their device.
But Apple and Google took a more cautious approach, removing TikTok, along with CapCut, Lemon8, and other ByteDance-owned apps, from their respective stores.
But now, newly instated Attorney-General Pam Bondi has provided official, legal confirmation that both will be safe from future prosecution as a result of allowing TikTok to remain available for download.
Which means that TikTok (along with other ByteDance apps) will be fully accessible in the U.S. for at least the next 50 or so days, which is when Trump’s 75-day extension on the negotiations will run out.
The Trump Administration has reportedly discussed a U.S. TikTok deal with several big tech players, including Microsoft, Oracle, and Amazon. It’s not clear what form any such agreement would take, but Trump has floated various proposals, including one that would see the U.S. government itself taking a stake in the app.
But any deal would also have to be agreed upon by Chinese authorities, and ByteDance has been working on that end to establish a compromise plan that will work for the CCP.
TikTok officials have also been in regular discussion with the Trump team, and it seems that those meetings may have resulted in this official confirmation on TikTok downloads from the AG.
So right now, TikTok is back to normal in the U.S., but there’s no word as yet on a formal agreement for its ongoing access to U.S. users.
The expectation is that Trump’s affections for the app, on which he has over 15 million followers, will eventually facilitate a deal that will keep TikTok available. But then again, Trump did also refer to the app as “Tic Tac” several times in a press conference this week.
So who knows, really, but TikTok has till early April to work out the details.
