INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
TikTok began restoring its services on Sunday after President-elect Donald Trump said he would revive the app&s access in the United States
when he returns to power on Monday, Reuters reported.Frankly, we have no choice
We have to save it,& Trump said at a rally on Sunday ahead of his inauguration, adding that the United States will seek a joint venture to
restore the short-video sharing app used by 170 million Americans.In a message to users hours before the rally, TikTok said: &As a result of
president Trump&s efforts, TikTok is back in the United States TikTok also issued an earlier statement after United States users reported
being able to access the Chinese-owned service&s website while the far more widely used TikTok app itself began coming back online for some
users with just a few basic services
As of Sunday evening, the app remained unavailable for download on United States app stores.In agreement with our service providers, TikTok
is in the process of restoring service,& TikTok said in the earlier statement that also thanked Trump for &providing the necessary clarity
and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties (for) providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing
over 7 million small businesses to thrive.TikTok&s public thanks to Trump, the day before he takes office, comes at a tense moment in United
Trump has said he intends to place tariffs on China but has also indicated he hopes to have more direct contact with China&s leader.The
Chinese Embassy in Washington on Friday accused the United States of using unfair state power to suppress TikTok
&China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,& a spokesperson said.TikTok stopped
working for United States users late on Saturday before a law shutting it down on national security grounds took effect on Sunday
United States officials had warned that under Chinese parent company ByteDance, there was a risk of Americans& data being misused, read the
report.Trump said he would &extend the period of time before the law&s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our
national security.I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture,& he wrote on Truth Social.Trump said
the executive order would specify there would be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before his order.Trump
had earlier said he would most likely give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban after he takes office, a promise TikTok cited in a notice
posted to users on the app.A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the United States Unfortunately, that means you can''t use TikTok for
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,& a message notified users of TikTok, which disappeared from Apple (AAPL.O), and Google app stores late on Saturday.Trump
saving TikTok represents a reversal in stance from his first term in office
In 2020, he aimed to ban the app over concerns the company was sharing Americans& personal info with the Chinese government
More recently, Trump has said he has &a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,& crediting the app with helping him win over young voters in the
2024 election.In August 2020, Trump signed an executive order giving ByteDance 90 days to sell TikTok but then blessed a deal structured as
a partnership rather than a divestment that would have included both Oracle (ORCL.N), and Walmart (WMT.N), taking stakes in the new company,
Reuters reported.Not everyone in Trump&s Republican Party agreed with efforts to get around the law and &Save TikTok&.Republican senators
Tom Cotton and Pete Ricketts said in a joint statement: &Now that the law has taken effect, there is no legal basis for any kind of
‘extension& of its effective date
For TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that satisfies the law&s qualified-divestiture requirements by
severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China.The United States has never banned a major social media platform
The law passed overwhelmingly by Congress gives the incoming Trump administration sweeping authority to ban or seek the sale of other
Chinese-owned apps.Other apps owned by ByteDance, including video editing app CapCut and lifestyle social app Lemon8, were also offline and
unavailable in United States app stores as of late Saturday.Apple and Google (GOOGL.O), did not immediately respond to requests for
comment.Web searches for &VPN& spiked in the minutes after United States users lost access to TikTok, according to Google Trends.Users on
Instagram fretted about whether they would still receive merchandise they had bought on TikTok Shop, the video platform&s e-commerce
arm.Marketing firms reliant on TikTok have rushed to prepare contingency plans in what one executive described as a &hair on fire& moment
after months of conventional wisdom saying that a solution would materialize to keep the app running.TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to attend
the United States presidential inauguration and attend a rally with Trump on Sunday, a source told Reuters.Suitors including former Los
Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt have expressed interest in the fast-growing business that analysts estimate could be worth as much as
Media reports say Beijing has also held talks about selling TikTok&s United States operations to billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk,
though the company has denied that.United States search engine startup Perplexity AI submitted a bid on Saturday to ByteDance for
Perplexity to merge with TikTok United States , a source familiar with the company&s plans told Reuters
Perplexity would merge with TikTok United States and create a new entity by combining the merged company with other partners, the person
added.Privately held ByteDance is about 60% owned by institutional investors such as BlackRock and General Atlantic, while its founders and
It has more than 7,000 employees in the United States The post TikTok is restoring service, thanks Trump first appeared on Ariana News.
