TikTok Is Online Again In The US: Trump To Make BIG Announcement For Chinese App On Inauguration Day

Popular short-video company, TikTok, in a dramatic turn of events, is back online in the United States Of America (USA). In the early hours of Sunday, the Chinese app stopped working in the USA, as per reports, right after the US Supreme Court approved the law that banned TikTok due to national security concerns. However, the leading social media platform has now issued an official statement, thanking Donald Trump ahead of his inauguration day, while restoring its US services. The 47th US President has also announced to issue a statement related to TikTok on Monday, January 20, 2025.

What has happened so far?

January 17: The US apex court approved the law that banned TikTok with concerns related to national security. The integrity of TikTok's security has been in question for many years and is a hot topic of discussion among parliament members in the USA.

US officials raised concerns about TikTok, where reportedly it was alleged that the Chinese app's software posed a national security risk. As per reports, concerns were that the Chinese government may likely use the app to spy on American citizens or secretly influence mass opinions by controlling the content that is shown on the app.

Following this, US Congress passed the law to ban TikTok, or give an option to its parent company, ByteDance to sell the app to a buyer that is approved by the US government. The law was passed by President Joe Biden in April last year, and ByteDance had up to January 19, 2025, a deadline to sell the famous app. ByteDance has appealed against the order, however, failed.

January 19: TikTok stopped working in the USA, and its app showed a message, "A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned".

January 19: In the late hours of January 19, Donald Trump through his social media account on Truth Social paused the ban on TikTok. He said, "I'm asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!"

Trump also revealed that he is going to issue an executive order on Monday, to extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect, adding he said, "so that, we can make a deal to protect our national security." Hence, it will be keenly watched what Donald Trump's new order for TikTok would be.

He added, "The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order."

Trump believes that Americans deserve to see their exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations.

Furthermore, he said, "I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up. Without U.S. approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars - maybe trillions."

Therefore, he said, "My initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose."

January 20: In the early hours of Monday, TikTok announced that it is in the process of restoring services, after Donald Trump's comments. In its statement, TikTok said, "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."

TikTok is a Chinese short-form video-hosting service owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes. Since its launch, TikTok has become one of the world's most popular social media platforms, using recommendation algorithms to connect content creators and influencers with new audiences, as per Wikipedia.

It needs to be noted that India banned TikTok in 2020 after they asked TikTok to remove users who posted misinformation related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Before 2020, a geographical report of TikTok in 2019, revealed that about 43% of its new users were from India before the ban.

India is not alone in banning TikTok over the spread of misinformation and security concerns. Other countries that have banned TikTok are ---- Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, France, Indonesia, Latvia, Netherlands, Nepal, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Taiwan, Somalia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.