The short video app TikTok has resumed its activity in the United States on Sunday, after President-elect Donald Trump announced that he will decree a moratorium on the law against the parent company.
American users have recovered the application about twelve hours after the Chinese company itself went “black” as a result of the law that prohibits its activity. The application did not allow viewing videos and only presented a message urging its users to “stay alert.”
Trump has announced that he will approve on Monday, the date of his inauguration, an executive order with a 90-day moratorium to make it easier to avoid the ban on TikTok. In addition, he has proposed as a solution that the company be 50 percent American-owned.
“Let’s save TikTok,” the president-elect proclaimed on his social network Truth Social before announcing that he will issue the presidential decree.
“I have asked companies not to let TikTok continue to be down! I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the deadline for the application of the prohibitions of the law so that we can reach an agreement that protects our national security,” he explained.
The order, Trump explains, specifies that there will be no consequences for any company that has prevented TikTok from being disabled. “Americans deserve to see our exciting inauguration on Monday and other events and conversations,” he stressed.
As a solution, he has proposed that “I would like the United States to have 50 percent ownership in a ‘joint venture’.” “This way we would save TikTok, keep it in good hands and make it easier for it to continue transmitting,” he said.
The possibility of granting such a moratorium – subject to specific conditions – is provided for in the law approved last year and recently declared constitutional.
REMOVAL FROM APP STORES
Hours after the removal, Apple and Google have moved to remove TikTok from their mobile app stores in the United States, as required by law, as confirmed by the Cupertino company, “obliged to comply with the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates,” according to a statement posted on its website, while Google has not yet commented on the matter.
The law, signed in April by President Joe Biden, orders TikTok’s parent company, China-based ByteDance Ltd., to divest its US business, which ByteDance refused to do, or face closure. American companies that host or distribute TikTok in the United States are now required to stop doing so, or risk fines potentially in the billions of dollars.
The law does not mention the US companies by name, but stipulates that it would be illegal for “an entity,” “a marketplace” such as a mobile app store, or “internet hosting services to permit the distribution, maintenance, or updating” of TikTok and other ByteDance products.
Companies that break the law could face huge penalties determined by “multiplying $5,000 by the number of users.” In a country where more than half the population is on TikTok (the app claims to have 170 million monthly users in the US), those fines could quickly add up.
Apple has also removed other apps developed by ByteDance and its subsidiaries, including CapCut, Lemon8, and Lark, a Slack-like work productivity app, as well as the popular superhero video game MARVEL SNAP.
