Apple and Google restore TikTok to their U.S. app stores

The TikTok app logo is shown on an iPhone on January 17 in Houston. (Ashley Landis/AP via CNN Newsource)

New York (CNN) — Google Play said it restored TikTok to the U.S. app store on Thursday, following promises by President Donald Trump to save the app and an executive action delaying the enactment of a ban on the wildly popular social media platform.

Bloomberg and CNBC also reported that Apple will restore the app to its app store on Thursday evening. TikTok was available on app stores as of Thursday evening, according to CNN attempts to download the app on different phones.

TikTok’s uncertain future stems from a law signed last April by then-President Joe Biden, which gave China’s ByteDance 270 days to sell the app to an owner from the United States or one of its allies or face a ban, based on US national security concerns. The day before the blackout, the Supreme Court upheld the ban.

TikTok shut down for roughly 14 hours in January but attributed its quick return to promises made by the then president-elect Donald Trump to keep the platform working in the US.

But its 175 million users still ran into at least one problem: The app was, as of that January weekend, unavailable on Apple and Google Play stores, along with Lemon8 and CapCut, which are also owned by TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance.

Apple previously said in a statement it removed TikTok from the app store because of the ban, but the app remained available for customers who already downloaded it.

Tech companies faced consequences

Trump signalled before taking office that he would sign an executive action delaying enforcement of the ban and TikTok had credited him for the reason the app came back.

“I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on January 19. He added that he would not hold TikTok’s technology partners — including Apple, Google and cloud computing company Oracle — liable for continuing to make the app available until he signed the order.

The law required only that TikTok’s technology partners — including Oracle, which hosts TikTok’s content in the United States, and Apple and Google, which host the app on their app stores — stop supporting the app or face fines of up to US$5,000 per person who has access to the platform starting Sunday.

Trump took office the next day, on January 20. He signed the executive order later that day, giving TikTok another 75 days to find a new owner.

Trump’s promises to save TikTok

The action says the 75-day delay would help the Trump administration attempt to “determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans.”

Trump told reporters that he changed his mind on TikTok because he “got to use it.”

“And remember, TikTok is largely about kids, young kids,” Trump said in the Oval Office when asked what changed his mind. “If China is going to get information about young kids out of it, to be honest, I think we have bigger problems than that.”

He also told reporters the action that he signed on TikTok gave him the right to either “sell it or close it.”

“I have the right to either sell it or close it, and we’ll make that determination,” Trump added.