TikTok restores service after going dark in US, crediting Trump's 'clarity'

Daniel Howley , Alexis Keenan and Ben Werschkul

Updated Mon, Jan 20, 2025, 6:01 AM 6 min read

"In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive."

In a social media post on Sunday, Trump asked tech companies to "not let TikTok stay dark" and reiterated his plan to issue a reprieve once he takes office.

"I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security," Trump posted. "The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order."

Trump also said he would like to see TikTok become a joint venture with 50% American ownership. TikTok's statement followed roughly two hours later.

The alert also mentioned Trump by name saying, "We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office."

On its website earlier, TikTok told users they could still log in to download their data. As of Sunday afternoon, that message had been updated to read: "We're working hard to resolve this issue. Thank you for your patience."

The latest notification said, "You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok."

TikTok went dark Saturday night, just ahead of a ban on Sunday. (Source: Yahoo Finance/Dan Howley) · Howley

Still, many on Capitol Hill — not to mention outside experts — questioned whether Trump will have the authority to make good on these promises.

Some of Trump’s closest political allies are also the most outspoken critics of TikTok and have so far stood by the law that they passed last April with strong bipartisan margins.

In a statement early Sunday, Republican Sens. Tom Cotton and Pete Ricketts said, "Now that the law has taken effect, there’s no legal basis for any kind of 'extension' of its effective date." Cotton added earlier this week on the Senate floor that "there will be no extension, no concession, and no compromises for TikTok."

House Speaker Mike Johnson, another top Trump ally, also raised questions Sunday, telling NBC he wanted to see the current law enforced and that he is "really heartened to see that Google and Apple and Microsoft have taken the steps to comply with the law."

The back-and-forth between Trump, TikTok, and US lawmakers will remain in acute relief on Monday, with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew expected to be in attendance at inauguration events.

Rolling shutdown

Access to TikTok began getting cut off for some US users about 90 minutes before the new law took effect late Saturday. The app was also unavailable via Apple's App Store in the hours leading up to midnight. Videos intermittently loaded on TikTok for a time, but the app also showed a blacked-out screen indicating network issues.

Saturday night's rolling cutoff for US TikTok users followed a report from The Information that said Oracle (ORCL), which manages TikTok's US servers, was set to begin shutting down servers that host TikTok's data as early as 9:00 p.m. ET.

The law that has resulted in TikTok's shutdown doesn't outright ban the app; rather, it prohibits users from accessing the platform through app stores, like those run by Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL), and cloud services unless parent company ByteDance sells itself to an owner that is not controlled by a country the US considers adversarial.

Congress has accused ByteDance of having close ties to the Chinese government and alleges that the Chinese Communist Party could force the company to provide it with information on US users or otherwise spread propaganda on the platform.

But the outcry from users and TikTok's backers forced President Joe Biden and Trump to respond. Even with Trump's assurances to Apple and Google that his administration won't enforce the law, it's not guaranteed that his — or any other administration — would do so in the future. Each time the companies don't comply with the law they'd have to pay a fine of $5,000 each time a user accesses the social media app.

If Trump wants to keep the service up and running, he will have to convince Congress to overturn the ban or find some other way to work around it, and neither of those options is simple.

'It's a good thing for Meta'

Should TikTok's ban eventually come to pass, one of the biggest winners could be one of TikTok’s long-term critics: Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In particular, Instagram, owned by Meta, could see a sizable uptick in advertiser dollars if TikTok bites the dust.

“In general, it’s a good thing for Meta,” William Blair research analyst Ralph Schackart told Yahoo Finance. “We estimate in a note potentially 60% to 70% of TikTok spend could move to Instagram and it monetizes at around 3x the rate of TikTok.”

Meta-owned Instagram announced Edits, a new video-editing app, on the same day that TikTok went dark, though it won't go live until February.

Social media companies have been chasing TikTok’s formula in an attempt to copy the social media platform’s success for some time. Reddit (RDDT), for example, offers its own short-form video feed that could entice former TikTok users looking for a broader kind of social media site complete with various message boards and communities.

Snapchat (SNAP) could also grab users who would have otherwise spent time on TikTok — and the advertising dollars that follow. But as Morgan Stanley managing director Brian Nowak pointed out, Snap would have to ensure it can keep those TikTok refugees coming back over and over again — as TikTok does — if it hopes to hold on to that ad revenue.

Pinterest (PINS) also stands to get a boost if TikTok is forced to go dark. While the app doesn’t have much in common with TikTok as far as overall design, it could offer an opportunity for online retailers looking to drum up e-commerce sales, something TikTok has managed to do thanks to its army of influencers.