Apple and Google on Thursday evening restored TikTok to their respective app stores in the U.S., nearly a month after they removed the short video app following a national security law that initially banned it in the country.
The companies also reinstated other apps owned by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance—video editor CapCut and social media app Lemon8—which were removed earlier in compliance with the law.
For years, concerns over ByteDance’s Chinese origins fueled national security debates. Former U.S. President Joe Biden passed a law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to a non-Chinese entity by January 19, 2025, or face a ban. Following legal appeals, the Supreme Court upheld the law on January 17, enforcing severe financial penalties on app store operators that failed to comply.
However, newly elected President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 20, delaying the ban and granting ByteDance a 75-day extension to find a U.S. buyer. This move led to TikTok restoring its services in the country, with providers like Oracle resuming their support. Yet, Apple and Google hesitated to relist the app due to uncertainties around potential penalties.
During this period, U.S. users who had uninstalled TikTok were unable to reinstall it, while those who already had the app could continue using it.
Since then, Trump has proposed a unique solution—allowing the U.S. to own a 50% stake in TikTok through a joint venture with major tech firms. He also signed an executive order to establish a sovereign wealth fund that could potentially facilitate this purchase. Oracle and Microsoft have emerged as leading contenders to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations.
Meanwhile, rival social platforms have seized the opportunity to attract TikTok’s user base. X and Bluesky swiftly launched vertical video feeds, while Meta introduced a video editing app to compete with CapCut.
According to analytics firm Sensor Tower, TikTok was the second most downloaded app in the U.S. last year, racking up 52 million downloads.
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