TikTok restores service for US users based on Trump's promised executive order

TikTok restored service to users in the United States on Sunday just hours after the popular video-sharing platform went dark in response to a federal ban, which President-elect Donald Trump said he would try to pause by executive order on his first day in office.

Trump said he planned to issue the order to give TikTok’s China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer before the ban takes full effect. He announced the move on his Truth Social account as millions of U.S. TikTok users awoke to discover they could no longer access the TikTok app or platform.

But by Sunday afternoon, a message greeted those who signed on thanking them — and the president-elect — for their support.

“As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” the message read.

TikTok said it shut down the platform late Saturday because of a federal law that required parent company ByteDance to sell its U.S. operation by Sunday. Google and Apple also removed TikTok from their digital stores. The law, which passed with wide bipartisan support in April, allows for steep fines.

While the company that runs TikTok in the U.S. said on X that the steps Trump outlined Sunday provided “the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties," the TikTok app remained remained unavailable for download in Apple and Google’s app stores.

“It was a brilliant marketing stunt for both TikTok and incoming president Donald Trump," Jasmine Enberg, an analyst with market research firm Emarketer, said. “By abruptly shutting off service, TikTok proved how unpopular the ban was among its users."

The law that took effect Sunday required ByteDance to cut ties with the platform’s U.S. operations due to national security concerns. However, the statute authorized the sitting president to grant a 90-day extension if a viable sale was underway.

Although investors made some offers, ByteDance has said it would not sell. Trump said his order would “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect” and “confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.”

It wasn't immediately clear how Trump's promised action would fare from a legal standpoint since the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the ban on Friday and the statute came into force the day before Trump's return to the White House. Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Wisconsin and the bill's author, said on Fox News Sunday that “there is no extension” for TikTok.

“Let me tell you, as the person who wrote the bill, the extension was within the 270-day window, which closed at 12:01 a.m. this morning,” he said, adding that only if the president certifies there are “legally binding documents” showing a divestiture is on the way would there be an extension.

“I think Trump can at least make an argument that the language is meant to cover any president,” University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias said.

Some lawmakers who voted for the sale-or-ban law, including some of Trump's fellow Republicans, remain in favor of it. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas warned companies Sunday not to provide TikTok with technical support.

“Any company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law,” Cotton wrote on X. “Think about it.”

Constitutional and business law attorney Kirk McGill said he thinks Trump lacks the legal authority to suspend the ban but it’s unlikely the question would reach a court in the time it might take TikTok to find a buyer.

It’s also unlikely that Apple or Google will face legal consequences if they move forward with Trump’s demands, given that his administration would have to initiate any prosecutions, McGill said.

“In the next week or two, before the courts have the chance to do anything, this is certainly going to be a political fight, not a legal one,” McGill said.

The on-and-off availability of TikTok came after the Supreme Court ruled that the risk to national security posed by TikTok’s ties to China outweighed concerns about limiting speech by the app or its millions of U.S. users.

When TikTok users in the U.S. tried to watch or post videos on the platform as of Saturday night, they saw a pop-up message under the headline, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.”

“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.,” the message said. “Unfortunately that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”

The app was removed late Saturday from prominent app stores and remained so as of Sunday afternoon. Apple told customers it also took down other apps developed by ByteDance. They included Lemon8, which some influencers had promoted as a TikTok alternative, the popular video editing app CapCut and photo editor Hypic.

“Apple is obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates,” the company said.

Google declined to comment. Apple did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the day's developments.

Experts had said the law as written did not require TikTok to take down its platform, only for app stores to remove it. Current users expected to continue to have access to videos until a lack of updates caused the app to stop working.

After TikTok was back online Sunday, content creator Tiffany Watson, 20, said she was “pretty hopeful” it would stay up. At the same time, Watson said her dedication “solely” to the platform declined during the months the threat of a ban loomed.

“Overall, I hope that creators will succeed and find community in spite of the unpredictability of TikTok," she said.

Trump's plan to spare TikTok on his first day in office reflected the ban's coincidental timing and the unusual mix of political considerations surrounding a social media platform that first gained popularity with often silly videos featuring dances and music clips.

During his first presidential term, Trump in 2020 issued executive orders banning dealings with ByteDance and the owners of the Chinese messaging app WeChat, moves that courts subsequently blocked.

Trump has since credited TikTok with helping him win support from young voters in last year's presidential election. TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration with a prime seating location.

Trump's choice for national security adviser, Michael Waltz, told CBS News on Sunday that the president-elect discussed TikTok during a weekend call with Chinese President Xi Jinping “and they agreed to work together on this.”

The Biden administration has also stressed in recent days that it did not intend to implement or enforce the ban before Trump takes office on Monday.

ByteDance has publicly insisted it would not sell TikTok, and no likely buyer has emerged.

On Saturday, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance to create a new entity that merges Perplexity with TikTok's U.S. business, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Perplexity is not asking to purchase the ByteDance algorithm that feeds TikTok user’s videos based on their interests.

In Washington, lawmakers and administration officials have long warned that the algorithm is vulnerable to manipulation by China. To date, the U.S. has not publicly provided evidence of TikTok providing user data to Chinese authorities or tinkering with the algorithm to benefit Chinese interests.

Another unknown is whether Trump will remain a TikTok fan.

“He’s flip-flopped on his stance toward TikTok before, and there’s no guarantee he won’t do so again,” EMarketer's Enberg said.

Kanis Leung in Hong Kong and Charlotte Kramon in Atlanta, Nadia Lathan in Austin, Texas, and Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California, contributed to this story.

The logo for TikTok is displayed on a mobile phone, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

A message reading "Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now" is displayed from the TikTok app on a cell phone screen Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

FILE - President Donald Trump talks to reporters while in flight from Billings, Mont., to Fargo, N.D., Sept. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

A TikTok app is shown on a phone in San Francisco, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

A TikTok app is shown on a phone in San Francisco, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

This screenshot from a cell phone displays a message from the TikTok app reading "Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now" on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025, in San Bruno, Calif. (AP Photo/Stephanie Mullen)

A message reading "Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now" is displayed from the TikTok app on a cell phone screen on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Andy Bao)

A TikTok logo is shown on a phone in San Francisco, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Thousands of people marched in Minneapolis Saturday to protest the fatal shooting of a woman by a federal immigration officer there and the shooting of two protesters in Portland, Oregon, as Minnesota leaders urged demonstrators to remain peaceful.

The Minneapolis gathering was one of hundreds of protests planned in towns and cities across the country over the weekend. It came in a city on edge since the killing of Renee Good on Wednesday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

“We’re all living in fear right now,” said Meghan Moore, a mother of two from Minneapolis who joined the protest Saturday. “ICE is creating an environment where nobody feels safe and that’s unacceptable.”

On Friday night, a protest outside a Minneapolis hotel that attracted about 1,000 people turned violent as demonstrators threw ice, snow and rocks at officers, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Saturday. One officer suffered minor injuries after being struck with a piece of ice, O’Hara said. Twenty-nine people were cited and released, he said.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stressed that while most protests have been peaceful, those who cause damage to property or put others in danger will be arrested. He faulted “agitators that are trying to rile up large crowds.”

“This is what Donald Trump wants,” Frey said of the president who has demanded massive immigration enforcement efforts in several U.S. cities. “He wants us to take the bait.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz echoed the call for peace.

“Trump sent thousands of armed federal officers into our state, and it took just one day for them to kill someone,” Walz posted on social media. “Now he wants nothing more than to see chaos distract from that horrific action. Don’t give him what he wants.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says its deployment of immigration officers in the Twin Cities is its biggest ever immigration enforcement operation. Trump's administration has said both shootings were acts of self-defense against drivers who “weaponized” their vehicles to attack officers.

Connor Maloney said he was attending the Minneapolis protest to support his community and because he's frustrated with the immigration crackdown.

“Almost daily I see them harassing people,” he said. “It’s just sickening that it’s happening in our community around us.”

Steven Eubanks, 51, said he felt compelled to attend a protest in Durham, North Carolina, on Saturday because of the “horrifying” killing of Good in Minneapolis.

“We can’t allow it,” Eubanks said. “We have to stand up.”

Indivisible, a social movement organization that formed to resist the Trump administration, said hundreds of protests were scheduled in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Florida and other states.

In Minneapolis, a coalition of migrant rights groups organized the demonstration that began in a park about half a mile from the residential neighborhood where the 37-year-old Good was shot on Wednesday. Marchers carried signs calling for ICE to leave and voiced support for Good and immigrants.

A couple of miles away, just as the demonstration began, an Associated Press photographer witnessed heavily armed officers — at least one in Border Patrol uniform — approach a person who had been following them. Two of the agents had long guns out when they ordered the person to stop following them, telling him it was his “first and final warning.”

The agents eventually drove onto the interstate without detaining the driver.

Protests held in the neighborhood have been largely peaceful, in contrast to the violence that hit Minneapolis in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Near the airport, some confrontations erupted on Thursday and Friday between smaller groups of protesters and officers guarding the federal building used as a base for the Twin Cities crackdown.

O’Hara said city police officers have responded to calls about cars abandoned because their drivers have been apprehended by immigration enforcement. In one case, the car was left in park and in another case a dog was left in the vehicle.

He said immigration enforcement activities are happening “all over the city” and that 911 callers have been alerting authorities to ICE activity, arrests and abandoned vehicles.

The Trump administration has deployed thousands of federal officers to Minnesota under a sweeping new crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. More than 2,000 officers were taking part.

Some officers moved in after abruptly pulling out of Louisiana, where they were part of another operation that started last month and was expected to last until February.

Three congresswomen from Minnesota attempted to tour the ICE facility in the Minneapolis federal building on Saturday morning and were initially allowed to enter but then told they had to leave about 10 minutes later.

U.S, Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig accused ICE agents of obstructing members of Congress from fulfilling their duty to oversee operations there.

“They do not care that they are violating federal law,” Craig said after being turned away.

A federal judge last month temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing policies that limit congressional visits to immigration facilities. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by 12 members of Congress who sued in Washington, D.C. to challenge ICE’s amended visitor policies after they were denied entry to detention facilities.

Associated Press writers Allen Breed in Durham, North Carolina, and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.

People place flowers for a memorial at the site where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Friday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Demonstrators march outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Demonstrators march outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Rep. Kelly Morrison D-Minn., center, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., second from the right, and Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., far right, at the Bishop Whipple Federal Building, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference as Police Chief Brian O'Hara listens, on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Federal agents stand outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building as protesters gather in Minneapolis, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Federal agents stand outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building as protesters gather in Minneapolis, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Federal agents look on as protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

A woman holds a sign for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis earlier in the week, as people gather outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Two people sit in the street with their hands up in front of Minnesota State Patrol during a protest and noise demonstration calling for an end to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Minnesota State Patrol officers are seen during a protest and noise demonstration calling for an end to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Minnesota State Patrol officers are seen during a protest and noise demonstration calling for an end to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Two people sit in the street holding hands in front of Minnesota State Patrol during a protest and noise demonstration calling for an end to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)