Tik Tok Is Back!

By: Desmond Price

Jan 19, 2025

As of 1:15 PM EST, Tik Tok is officially back online in the United States.

Tik Tok took to X to release this statement ⬇️

It seems as though Tik Tok’s representatives and Donald Trump have had a conversation about whether or not Tik Tok would be punished for staying online passed the official cutoff date.

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It’s not entirely clear what deal has been made as of yet, but Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform to release the following statement ⬇️

While the reimplementation of Tik Tok seems to be gradual, it does appear that it should be fully restored today. I found this passage reported by NBC News to be useful ⬇️

TikTok's availability remained limited as of early afternoon, with access to the platform's content available through web browsers. The app was also still unavailable for download from Apple and Google’s app stores.
The law banning TikTok, which was scheduled to go into effect Sunday, allows the president to grant a 90-day extension before the ban is enforced, provided certain criteria are met.
Under a law that President Joe Biden signed in April, TikTok would be banned unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, sold the company to a non-Chinese buyer.
Prior to the ban’s implementation, both Biden and the incoming Trump administration appeared to reverse their earlier positions on TikTok.
During his campaign, Trump, who had advocated for a ban during his first term as president, came out in support of TikTok, saying he’d save the app.
After the Supreme Court greenlit the law on Friday, the Biden administration issued a statement saying it would not enforce the ban, leaving that responsibility to Trump.
On Saturday evening, the app was removed from app stores and service for American users was suspended.
TikTok's future in the U.S. is still up in the air. Even if TikTok is given an extension, as Trump has vowed to do in an executive order tomorrow, the law still forces Bytedance to eventually sell the app to a non-Chinese owner — something the parent company has indicated no interest in doing.

I saw some members of Congress, including Maxwell Frost (D FL-18) saying they believed that Tik Tok used last night’s deactivation as a political stunt, to make Trump look better.

It’s hard to know exactly why Tik Tok took themselves offline last night; maybe the company wanted to use our collective outrage as leverage in their negotiations with the incoming Trump administration?

Whatever the case may be, it looks like service will be restored soon, while some of you may have already seen you service restored.

Personally, I’m thankful that millions of Americans who rely on that platform for community, income & knowledge, now have access again.

The fight for Tik Tok is less about the app itself, and more about what it represents for all of us individually.

Whether that’s:

Freedom of expression
Search engine for information
Way to build community
Way to find community
Way to start/grow a small business

There’s numerous reasons why people use Tik Tok & I’m happy for those folks today. While I don’t regularly us the app myself, I understand just how important it is to so many people in this country.

Do you use Tik Tok?

If so, what do you use it for?

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