TikTok Remains Unavailable on US App Stores After Trump’s Executive Action

The TikTok logo displayed on an iPhone in San Anselmo, Calif., on Dec. 6, 2024. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

TikTok remained unavailable on Tuesday for U.S. users of Google Play and Apple’s app store after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to delay a ban on the video app.

A law banning TikTok in the United States over national security concerns took effect on Sunday because California-based TikTok Inc. had not been separated from its China-based parent company ByteDance.

Trump signed an executive order on Monday to pause enforcement of the ban for 75 days. The order also said the Justice Department won’t take legal action against any entity for violation of the ban between Sunday and when the order was signed on Monday.

After going dark for hours, TikTok resumed service on Sunday evening, saying then-President-elect Trump’s promise to sign an executive order had provided “the necessary clarity and assurance” that the company could continue to operate.

However, as of Tuesday evening, TikTok has not been restored on Google and Apple’s respective app stores, which removed TikTok on Sunday.

Google, Apple, and TikTok didn’t immediately respond to The Epoch Times for comment.

In an X post on Tuesday, Alan Rozenshtein, law professor at the University of Minnesota, said, “Companies that are still doing business with TikTok are putting themselves at immense legal risk, Trump’s executive order notwithstanding.”

The law forcing TikTok to choose between a ban or a separation from its China-based owner was enacted in April, over three years after Trump tried to do the same with executive orders in 2020.

Under Chinese law, all entities in China—including those in the private sector—must hand over data upon authorities’ request to support national intelligence efforts.

At a Senate hearing when the bill was still being considered on the Hill, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that ByteDance’s algorithm, coupled with the American user data that TikTok collects, would enable influence operations that are “extraordinarily difficult to detect, which is part of what makes the national security concerns represented by TikTok so significant.”

TikTok successfully challenged Trump’s previous order, aimed at banning transactions with ByteDance and its subsidiaries, in federal courts.

The company’s challenge against another order requiring ByteDance to divest its U.S. assets in 90 days was held in abeyance in February 2021 so the Biden administration could review the matter and work with TikTok to reach a deal that doesn’t require divestment. A deal was never reached.

TikTok has also tried to challenge the current ban and lost the case in the Supreme Court on Jan. 17.

The company dismissed the U.S. concerns about its potential threat to U.S. national security, saying that the lack of evidence of past data sharing between ByteDance and the Chinese communist regime is enough to clear it from concerns about future actions.

However, ByteDance admitted in December 2022 that its employees had improperly obtained data from U.S. TikTok users, including two Western reporters. It also was accused by former head of engineering for ByteDance in the United States, Yintao Yu, of facilitating access to data by members of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to identify and locate protesters in Hong Kong.

In its opinion, the Supreme Court said Congress singled out TikTok because its “scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, justify differential treatment to address the Government’s national security concerns.”

“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the court said. “But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”

Signing the executive order on Monday, Trump repeated his previous remark that he now has a “warm spot” for Tiktok, which he credited for helping him increase support among young voters.

The president has suggested that the United States can acquire half of TikTok.

After Trump tried to separate TikTok from ByteDance in 2020, the Chinese regime updated its export restrictions to include technologies used by ByteDance, including artificial intelligence interactive interface technology and personalized information-push services based on data analysis.

In March 2023, China’s commerce department spokesperson Shu Jueting said that Beijing would “firmly oppose” any forced sale of TikTok and that any forced sale of or divestitures from TikTok “involve technology export issues” and must abide by China’s laws and regulations.

On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters that companies should be allowed to make their own decisions on their operations and acquisitions, but “if it involves Chinese companies, China’s laws and regulations should be observed.”

Meanwhile, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on Jan. 21 that he had paused his bid for TikTok as China was unwilling to negotiate the sale of the technology that has made TikTok so successful. He added he would be “very interested” in investing.

“The idea would be to transfer all technology so it no longer engages with ByteDance going forward,” Mnuchin said of the U.S. efforts.

Mnuchin described TikTok as a “terrific business,” and said he and his partners have plans to rebuild its technology.

Bill Ford, a ByteDance board member and CEO of TikTok investor General Atlantic, told CNBC that his reading of the law affecting TikTok doesn’t “necessarily have to mean a divestiture; it does probably mean a change of control.”

He said that currently, 60 percent of ByteDance shareholders are non-Chinese shareholders. They are mostly institutional investors such as BlackRock and General Atlantic, while the company’s founders and employees own 20 percent each.

The dynamics of private business in China is complex, as ByteDance, as long as it is operating in China under the legal and political framework of the ruling CCP, ultimately remains subject to the U.S. adversary’s laws, and could be compelled to cooperate with state directives regardless of company ownership or shareholder composition.

By law, Chinese companies are required to set up Communist Party units within their offices to ensure that business policies and employees toe the Party line. ByteDance, founded in March 2012, set up its Party committee in October 2014.

Over the years, Chinese state-owned media outlets have explicitly cited TikTok as a tool for advancing the regime’s goals, John Garnaut, a senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank, testified to the House Select Committee on the CCP in November 2023.

ByteDance didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment by publication time.

Terri Wu, Melanie Sun, Nicole Hao, and Reuters contributed to this report.