Washington: So, TikTok is back up and running after a bit of a scare. They shut down on Saturday night just before a ban was supposed to kick in. It was wild! If you tried to open the app, you’d see a message saying they were temporarily unavailable.
They were pretty bummed about it, saying they had to pause services due to a U.S. law that was set to take effect. But then, just a few hours later, they changed their tune. They mentioned that Trump was willing to help find a way to keep TikTok alive.
Trump, who’s about to take office, has had a bit of a rollercoaster relationship with TikTok. He hinted at a ban back in 2020, but now he’s saying he wants to save it. He even tweeted about giving a 90-day extension to pause the ban.
However, he suggested that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, should sell a chunk of the app to U.S. investors. ByteDance has been pretty clear that they don’t want to sell, though. There have been talks about U.S. companies taking over, but nothing has happened yet.
Trump also mentioned that without U.S. approval, TikTok wouldn’t exist. He believes it could be worth a ton of money if they get the green light. The whole situation caught a lot of people off guard, especially since the ban didn’t actually stop the app from working; it just meant you couldn’t download it from the app stores anymore.
