President-elect Donald Trump has said he will sign an executive order pausing the ban to allow TikTok’s Chinese owner more time to find a buyer, potentially saving the platform billions in lost ad revenue.
TikTok is restoring service in the US after a brief pause following assertions from incoming President Donald Trump that he will not uphold the ban.
The Chinese-owned app’s 170 million US users were met with a message on Saturday evening saying the platform “isn’t available right now”. The firm said it was “fortunate” Trump had indicated “he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office”.
Trump promised on Sunday he will sign an executive order pausing the ban once he is inaugurated today, giving the app more time to find a new owner.
The app began working again shortly after, with users greeted with a message thanking Trump. TikTok also thanked Trump in a statement on X for “providing the necessary clarity and assurance” it needed to resume operation.
The company has now said it will work with President Trump on a “long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States”.
President Joe Biden signed a law last April ordering TikTok’s owner ByteDance to sell the app to a non-Chinese owner, citing concerns around national security and the potential spread of propaganda and disinformation.
As reported on Friday, the potential loss in ad revenue for the platform if the ban was upheld would have been billions. Ad spend on TikTok in the US during Q3 of last year alone was $2.17bn (£1.8bn), with spend projected to be $4.17bn (£3.4bn) by Q4 2026, according to WARC.
The impact on creators would also have been sizeable. Although the ban would only have been in the US, Scott Guthrie, director general of the Influencer Marketing Trade Body, said the knock-on effect on the UK creator economy would have been huge.
“A ban would impact many UK creators, potentially culling 30-40% of their views at a stroke,” he said.
However, he added that many creators were taking steps to mitigate the impact and diversify their revenue streams by moving to apps including RedNote, Reels and YouTube Shorts.
