TikTok is restoring service in the US

Barely more than 12 hours after TikTok went dark in the United States, the video-sharing app is coming back online.

“In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service,” the company said in a statement. “We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.”

A law that would either force TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to sell the app or see it banned in the United States was scheduled to take effect today. The law also made it illegal for US companies to support the distribution, maintenance, or updating of the app.

With President-elect Donald Trump about to take office, officials from President Joe Biden’s White House and the Department of Justice said they’d leave enforcement of the law to the Trump administration, but TikTok said “critical service providers” needed a “definitive statement,” otherwise the app would go dark. And indeed, the app stopped working last night and it disappeared from the Apple and Google Play app stores.

Earlier today, however, President-elect Donald Trump posted that he would be issuing an executive order that would delay the ban, and he suggested that he’d like to see TikTok restored sooner than later because “Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday.” To that end, he said his order would “confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.”

That appeared to be enough reassurance for TikTok and its service providers. The TikTok app was already working again for several TechCrunch writers by the time the company issued its statement. However, as of 1:05pm Eastern, it still appeared to be absent from the Apple app store and Google Play.

And not all lawmakers were on-board. In response to TikTok’s announcement, Republican Senator Tom Cotton posted that “any company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability.”

Trump’s Sunday morning post also indicated that his “initial thought” on a deal to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. would involve “a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership.”

In its statement, TikTok said it will “will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”