TikTok Returns to Apple, Google Stores

TikTok has made its way back to the Apple and Google app stores as of Thursday evening. The popular social media platform, which had been temporarily unavailable, is now once again accessible to millions of users worldwide.

The Chinese-owned social media app had been pulled from the two stores on Jan. 18, seconds after TikTok’s leadership temporarily ceased operations in the U.S. in response to a national security law that went into force the next day.

on the App Store https://t.co/YMtQ3VbE79

— TikTok US (@tiktok_us) February 14, 2025

Nearly a month later, TikTok is once again accessible for download in the Apple App Store and Google Play.

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act might have resulted in severe sanctions for internet service providers such as Apple, Google, and Oracle.

The bill, signed by former President Joe Biden in April, mandated that China-based ByteDance sell out its TikTok U.S. business by January 19 or risk the app being banned in the nation.

The U.S. government said that ByteDance’s ownership and its purported connections to the People’s Republic of China constituted the app a national security threat, while TikTok claimed that the law violated the First Amendment rights of its more than 170 million users in the United States.

The Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration in January, and, in an opinion, said, “Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”

TikTok pushed back on the Supreme Court’s decision, and followed through with its threat to shut down its U.S. operations unless the Biden administration intervened.

The app came back online after President Donald Trump said he would postpone enforcement of the ban.

He signed an executive order on his first day in office to extend the law’s deadline by an extra 75 days to April 5.

On his Truth Social platform, Trump stated that in order to “save TikTok, keep it in good hands, and allow it to say up,” he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture.”

In late January, TikTok had recovered almost 90% of the traffic it was receiving before the law’s Jan. 19 deadline, despite being taken out of the two app stores for almost a month.

The article cited data from Cloudflare Radar.

CNBC