U.S. lawmakers wanted to shut down TikTok for a couple of reasons. First, they were concerned that as a Chinese company, TikTok has been collecting the personal data of American subscribers including teens. Additionally, there was concern that TikTok was sending Chinese propaganda to American youth via the content it disseminated to subscribers. On Saturday night, January 18th, TikTok went dark and was removed from Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store.
TikTok is back with a listing in the Apple App Store. | Image credit-PhoneArena
In a January 20th executive order, Trump had written that he had told his Attorney General “not to take any action to enforce the act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward.” Last night both Apple and Google received a letter from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi stating that a ban on TikTok would not be imminent.
The listing for TikTok returns to the Google Play Store. | Image credit-PhoneArena
Armed with this protection, Apple and Google felt that they could bring back their listings for TikTok and so the app reappeared in the App Store and Play Store allowing iOS and Android users to install TikTok on their phones. Both app stores had pulled their TikTok listing when TikTok went dark on January 18th and even though ByteDance turned the app back on the next day, Apple and Google had kept the app out of the App Store and Play Store until February 13th.
