TikTok has returned to the Apple and Google app stores after being removed amid the threat of a U.S. ban.
“The TikTok app is now available for download from the App Store and Google Play,” the company said in a Thursday (Feb. 13) press release. “Our U.S. users can download the latest version of our app and continue to create, discover and share what they love on TikTok.”
While the app has been operating after a brief blackout in January, the app stores have not been offering TikTok since the ban went into effect on Jan. 19, Reuters reported Thursday.
Their delay in returning the app to their stores may have been because of concerns about being prosecuted for distributing the app, but President Donald Trump has assured them that they do not face such a threat, the report said.
Trump said Thursday that he could extend his existing 75-day pause on enforcement of the TikTok ban, per the report.
The ban was signed into law in April by then-President Joe Biden, with supporters from both parties citing national security concerns related to the platform’s China-based owner, ByteDance. The law required ByteDance to sell TikTok or see the platform banned in the U.S.
After TikTok took the ban to court, citing the First Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the company’s challenge and upheld the law on Jan. 17. The court’s decision was unanimous and its unsigned opinion cited “well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”
When the ban went into effect on Jan. 19, the day before Trump’s inauguration, TikTok went dark for a few hours. However, it began restoring service after Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he would sign an executive order extending the ban deadline and promised that there would be no liability for any company that helped TikTok keep from going dark.
TikTok said at the time in a statement: “In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service,” thanking Trump for “providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties.”
