Twenty-six days after it was banned from the American app stores, Tiktok returned to the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. Apple and Google brought the video app back in Chinese after they had received a letter from the American Attorney General Pam Bondi who insured the companies they would not get for hosting, Bloomberg reported for the first time on Thursday.
Google confirmed to Wired that it brought it back, but did not immediately go out. Apple, Tiktok and the Ministry of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comments. Bondi was sworn in last week.
The return ends a loaded a few weeks before Tiktok. The platform disappeared from the American app stores and became dark for users throughout the country on January 19, hours before the ban came into force. It sputtered back to life later that day, after Tiktok managers had received their own guarantees from the then President-Elect Donald Trump that he would offer more time to achieve a resolution. If you already had the app on your phone, it normally functioned by the same afternoon.
After Trump took office on January 20, one of his first executive orders Tiktok gave a delay. “I instruct the attorney -general to not take action to enforce the law for a period of 75 days from today to give my administration the opportunity to determine the correct course in advance,” the order is.
However, Google and Apple kept Tiktok from their market places, which means that new users could not install it. This is because the law that underlies the Tiktok prohibition – Protection of Americans against foreign opponents' ACT (PAFACA) – that cannot “distribute, maintain” American technology companies, the mother company of Tiktok, the mother company of Tiktok . Those who are confronted with the prospect of hefty fines. That means not only Tiktok, but a dozen apps, including popular offers such as Lemon8, Capcut and Marvel Snap, have not been available for download for more than three weeks. (Those apps also returned to the app stores on Thursday.)
Although Tiktok was not available, users who were looking for the iOS App Store were greeted by the following message: “Tiktok and other Bytedance apps are not available in the country or region in which you are.” A link “More information” sent users to a long article explaining why the app was gone and a reminder that they would not receive updates as long as the ban was appropriate. In the meantime, the Google Play Store said: “Downloads for this app have been paused because of the current American legal requirements.” Searchers were aimed at competitor apps, of which various users are in use.
Pafaca enables the president to extend the deadline for prohibiting Tiktok by 90 days if he declares the congress that “considerable progress” has been made in the direction of a deal to sell the app to a non-Chinese company.
Just before he took office, Trump suggested that the US could have 50 percent owned by Tiktok, without specifying what he meant. The president was reportedly recently tapped vice -president JD Vance to lead the negotiations between Bytedance and potential buyers. A reported scenario would entail Oracle and a group of other investors who take control of the platform.
