TikTok is once again available for download in the US, ending all ruminations that it was removed from the country for good. The Chinese app has now been reinstated on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in the US after it was given the boot last month due to national security concerns. The decision to restore the popular short-form video app comes after US Attorney General Pam Bondi assured Apple and Google that they would not face legal repercussions for making the platform available to American users.
Last month, TikTok earned a ban from app stores in the US following the enactment of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which was signed into law in April 2024. This legislation mandated that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, divest its US operations by January 19, 2025, or face a nationwide ban. The law was passed amid concerns that ByteDance, the Chinese-owned company, could be compelled to share user data with the Chinese government.
Despite the deadline set by the legislation, ByteDance did not comply with the divestment requirement, leading to the federal ban removing the app from major US app stores. While users who had already installed TikTok on their devices could continue accessing it, new downloads were blocked, preventing potential new users from joining the platform. Additionally, existing users were unable to receive updates, limiting their access to security patches and new features.
The situation took a turn on January 20, when TikTok received a lifeline and President Donald Trump returned to office and signed an executive order that pushed back the enforcement of the TikTok ban by 75 days. “I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security,” Trump had announced in a pots on Truth Social at that time.
The order provided temporary relief for TikTok, allowing it to continue operations in the US while negotiations over the app’s future continued. However, despite the extension, Apple and Google did not immediately restore TikTok to their respective app stores (Apple App Store and Google Play STore respectively). This is where Bondi stepped in, and issued a letter clarifying that Apple and Google would not face penalties for reinstating TikTok while the ban remained suspended. This assurance led both tech giants to restore the app to their platforms, enabling new downloads and updates to resume for American users.
Tiktok’s return to app stores in the US bodes well for users and content creators in the country (and there is an extensive number of them, TikTok claims to have 170 million users in the US), even though the concerns that led to its ban in the first place are yet to be fully resolved. Lawmakers and security officials have argued that unless ByteDance sells TikTok’s U.S. operations to an American company, the platform will continue to pose a security risk. ByteDance, on the other hand, has maintained that it operates independently from the Chinese government.
