© Abaca Press
(New York, NY) – TikTok is back up and running following promises from President Donald Trump to save the popular social media app. In a statement released today, the company said Trump assured its leadership they would face no penalties for continuing to provide Americans access to the app. The statement also said the company will work with the Trump administration to preserve access to TikTok in the U.S. Trump has said he’ll extend today’s deadline with an executive order for Chinese-owned ByteDance to either sell TikTok to a U.S. company or face a ban.
On Saturday night around 10:30 pm, the app stopped working for users in the United States and displayed a hopeful message praising Trump. Then the next day, users were once again free to scroll. The welcome message to users when service was back thanked users for their patience and support. It went on to say “as a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”. ByteDance CEO Shou Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration tomorrow. Around 170 million Americans have an account on the video sharing app.
