(NewsNation) — President-elect Donald Trump plans to help the popular social media app stay in operation under his presidency.
TikTok shut down in the United States late Saturday night before a ban upheld by the Supreme Court took effect on Sunday.
Trump had said earlier Saturday that he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension but left no one in any doubt via Truth Social on Sunday morning.
The president-elect kept it short, writing on his social media platform: “SAVE TIKTOK!”
For now, TikTok remains down in the U.S. Upon opening the app shortly late last night, users were greeted with a message.
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.
“We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-AK, and Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-NE, posted a joint statement to X on Sunday morning stating that there is “no legal basis” for an extension of any kind.
“We commend Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft for following the law and halting operations with ByteDance and TikTok, and we encourage other companies to do the same. The law, after all, risks ruinous bankruptcy for any company who violates it,” the statement read.
“Now that the law has taken effect, there is no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date. For TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that satisfies the law’s qualified-divestiture requirements by severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China.
“Only then will Americans be protected from the grave threat posed to their privacy and security by a communist-controlled TikTok.”
