SAN FRANCISCO – TikTok is returning to Apple’s and Google’s app stores, weeks after President Donald Trump delayed enforcement of the law that sought to ban the service.
TikTok reappeared in Apple’s app store late on Thursday. Google said it would return the app to its own store soon.
TikTok went down dramatically in late January, just before a federal ban that was upheld by the Supreme Court was set to go into effect. The law, passed with bipartisan support by Congress and signed into law by the Biden administration, said TikTok could keep operating only if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, sold it to a company not based in China.
Apple and Google, which together effectively control which apps can be installed on almost all of the world’s smartphones, banned TikTok from their U.S. app stores last month. The same day, TikTok shut down its app and website, cutting off millions of users in the United States.
The next day, the eve of Trump’s inauguration, TikTok was back online after receiving assurances from the incoming president that he would sign an executive order preventing the company from being fined.
Google and Apple left their own bans in place, even though Trump after his inauguration quickly signed an executive order delaying enforcement of the law by 75 days.
Trump’s order instructed the Justice Department to send letters to Google and Apple assuring them they won’t be prosecuted under the law, which if enforced would levy huge fines against app stores and internet-service providers that support TikTok.
A Google spokesperson confirmed that TikTok was back on the company’s app store Thursday, although The Washington Post could not immediately find the app listed. The search company’s YouTube service competes with TikTok for users and ad spending.
Bloomberg News reported that Apple was returning the app after receiving a letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi assuring the company it will not be prosecuted.
An Apple spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesperson for the DOJ declined to comment.