The video app remains missing from Apple and Google’s app stores on Tuesday evening amid TikTok’s legal limbo.
TikTok remained unavailable on Tuesday for U.S. users of Google Play and Apple’s app store after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to delay a ban on the video app.
A law banning TikTok in the United States over national security concerns took effect on Sunday because California-based TikTok Inc. had not been separated from its China-based parent company ByteDance.
Trump signed an executive order on Monday to pause enforcement of the ban for 75 days. The order also said the Justice Department won’t take legal action against any entity for violation of the ban between Sunday and when the order was signed on Monday.
After going dark for hours, TikTok resumed service on Sunday evening, saying then-President-elect Trump’s promise to sign an executive order had provided “the necessary clarity and assurance” that the company could continue to operate.
However, as of Tuesday evening, TikTok has not been restored on Google and Apple’s respective app stores, which removed TikTok on Sunday.
Google, Apple, and TikTok didn’t immediately respond to The Epoch Times for comment.
In an X post on Tuesday, Alan Rozenshtein, law professor at the University of Minnesota, said, “Companies that are still doing business with TikTok are putting themselves at immense legal risk, Trump’s executive order notwithstanding.”
Companies that are still doing business with TikTok are putting themselves at immense legal risk, Trump's executive order notwithstanding. My latest for @lawfare. pic.twitter.com/M2ZfKk1TNu
— Alan Rozenshtein (@ARozenshtein) January 21, 2025
The law forcing TikTok to choose between a ban or a separation from its China-based owner was enacted in April, over three years after Trump tried to do the same with executive orders in 2020.
Under Chinese law, all entities in China—including those in the private sector—must hand over data upon authorities’ request to support national intelligence efforts.
At a Senate hearing when the bill was still being considered on the Hill, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that ByteDance’s algorithm, coupled with the American user data that TikTok collects, would enable influence operations that are “extraordinarily difficult to detect, which is part of what makes the national security concerns represented by TikTok so significant.”
By Lily Zhou
