TikTok banned in the United States: the social network is accessible again this Monday, a political victory for Donald Trump

The social network created by a Chinese company stopped working this Sunday, January 19 in the United States where it has more than 170 million users, before being restored a few hours later.

The social network TikTok was restored Sunday in the United States, just hours after its suspension, a conclusion in the form of a political victory for Donald Trump.

A sign of the intact vitality of the platform with more than 170 million users in the United States, TikTok was immediately flooded with videos celebrating this return.

In a message posted on X (formerly Twitter), the group thanked the president-elect for having assured internet service providers and app stores that they would escape the heavy penalties provided for by the law.

The law provides for very heavy fines for these technical service providers, up to $5,000 per user for app stores.

Earlier on Sunday, the future head of state had promised to issue a decree once he was inaugurated on Monday to suspend the law banning TikTok from United States.

The text adopted in 2024 opens the possibility of postponing implementation by 90 days to find a buyer, an alternative offered to TikTok's parent company, the Chinese company ByteDance, instead of the ban.

“Save” TikTok

“We must save TikTok”, Donald Trump proclaimed Sunday in Washington during a final meeting before his inauguration. “We have no choice”, he hammered home, referring to the “many jobs” at stake.

“We don't want to give markets to China” or “to others”, declared the adopted Floridian.

“We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution to keep TikTok in the United States”, explained the company.

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

“It's a great success for TikTok and a political victory for Trump”, Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, told AFP.

“The app was going to stay in the dark and Trump came to the rescue in this high-stakes political game between the United States and China,” he continued.

A boost for competitors

ByteDance has so far refused to sell this platform, which was launched barely ten years ago and has become essential for a large majority of young Internet users.

Donald Trump unveiled on Sunday the outlines of what he sees as a solution to the sensitive issue of control of TikTok's subsidiary in the United States by Chinese interests.

“I would like to see a joint company controlled by 50% by Americans”, the president-elect wrote. “Without an American agreement, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth several hundred billions, even trillions.”

Up and running again, TikTok still did not appear on app stores.

Since Friday, the group has asked the Biden administration to send a clear signal to internet providers and app store managers to dissuade them from suspending downloads and updates.

But White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre described TikTok's calls as a “maneuver”. “We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to act before the Trump administration takes office on Monday.”.

The US Supreme Court, which TikTok appealed as a last resort, unanimously refused to suspend the law on Friday.

The nine senior judges considered that Congress's concerns “in terms of national security” were “well founded”.

American elected officials had justified the vote on the law by the need to prevent Chinese authorities from accessing American user data or manipulating opinion in the United States.

But while the platform was the subject of open hostility on the part of many American elected officials a year ago, the tide has since turned and a political consensus has emerged in recent days, favorable to the preservation of TikTok.

The postponement of the entry into force of the law is theoretically only possible if there are tangible elements that make a sale credible.

Businessman Frank McCourt has said he is ready to put $20 billion on the table with other partners for the American activities of the application, without its powerful algorithm.

On Saturday, the artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance to merge with TikTok’s American subsidiary, which would value the social network at at least $50 billion.

TikTok’s reopening has given rise to a flood of videos celebrating the event, showing off the network’s most popular forms, from musical choreographies to sequences dubbed with a song.