After TikTok’s brief outage in January, the app came back online but was no longer available to download.
TikTok is back on Apple’s App Store and Google Play, as President Donald Trump hinted at allowing the app to continue operations in the U.S.
During a press conference, Trump mentioned that the deadline he set for TikTok to find a buyer could be extended.
“I have 90 days from about two weeks ago and I’m sure it can be extended but let’s see, I don’t think you’ll need to,” he said.
Last year, a bipartisan-supported law signed by President Joe Biden mandated ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to secure an approved buyer for its U.S. platform by Jan. 19 to avoid a ban. The Supreme Court upheld this law just before Trump took office.
TikTok briefly shut down in the U.S. in January, but went back online after Trump said he would postpone the ban. The app has since continued operating in the U.S. but new downloads from app stores were not allowed. Phones with the app installed were listed on resale sites for thousands of dollars.
Trump had unsuccessfully attempted a U.S. ban of the platform during his first term. He has since reversed his position and has credited the platform with helping him win more young voters during last year’s presidential election.
An executive order Trump signed shortly after being sworn in as president enabled the short-form video app to continue operating until early April.
Congress voted to ban TikTok in the U.S. out of concern that TikTok’s parent company’s link to the Chinese government represented a security risk. The Biden administration argued in court for months that it was too much of a risk to allow a Chinese company to control the algorithm that fuels what people see on the app. Officials also raised concerns about user data collected on the platform.
However, to date, the U.S. hasn’t provided public evidence of TikTok handing user data to Chinese authorities or allowing them to tinker with its algorithm.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
