Apple and Google have made TikTok available on their U.S. app stores again, they said Thursday evening.
TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese technology company ByteDance, disappeared from both stores in the United States on Jan. 18, hours before a ban on the social media app was set to go into effect. It had remained unavailable to download on both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play store until Thursday. However, users who had previously downloaded it could continue to use it.
Google and Apple did not comment Thursday evening beyond saying the app was available.
The ban, which is rooted in national security concerns, was the result of a law President Joe Biden signed in April that mandated that ByteDance sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or be blocked in the United States on Jan. 19. After a number of appeals, the Supreme Court upheld the law on Jan. 17, paving the way for it to shut down in the country.
Days before he left office, Biden’s administration said it would leave enforcement of the law to the incoming Trump administration, which was set to take office Jan. 20.
TikTok restored service to the United States on Jan. 19 after having blocked it the night before, saying it had done so based on pledges from incoming President Donald Trump to save the app. Trump had indicated that he would sign an executive order “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.”
Credit: NBC