LOS ANGELES — TikTok resumed its service in the United States on Sunday following a brief suspension caused by legal uncertainty surrounding its ownership structure. The platform had stopped functioning on Saturday night, alarming its 170 million U.S. users.
The halt followed a Supreme Court ruling requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban. The suspension message read: “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.” The app also disappeared from Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store.
President Donald Trump, who takes office on Monday, announced he would sign an executive order granting TikTok a temporary 90-day reprieve. He expressed a preference for a joint venture where the U.S. government would retain a 50% stake in the company.
TikTok warned of the economic impact a shutdown would have on creators and businesses. According to their data, more than 7 million U.S. accounts rely on the platform for business, and a shutdown could have cost $1.3 billion in revenue within a month.