Less than twenty-four hours after the blackout, TikTok restores service in the United States

The president-elect expressed his desire to eliminate “TikTok staying dark” after President Joe Biden’s administration declared it would not impose a ban before to Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Less than twenty-four hours after its nationwide closure, TikTok has resumed operations in the United States. After going black the night before, TikTok declared on X that it was “in the process of restoring service” to Americans on Sunday, January 19, in an official statement posted to its policy account.

The statement also cited President-elect Donald Trump’s recent remarks about not letting “TikTok stay dark.” “We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive,” the statement added.

“It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship,” the statement went on to say. “We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.” The app is available to users as of January 19 at 1 p.m. EST. PEOPLE’s request for additional information was not immediately answered by a TikTok representative.

The announcement of TikTok’s comeback follows the app’s Saturday night shutdown, when users were met with the notice, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.”

“The United States has passed legislation outlawing TikTok. The statement went on, “Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now,” before mentioning Trump’s vow to “work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office” on Monday, January 20. Throughout the day, TikTok’s pop-up notificationi varied; most recently, it stated that it was “working to restore our service in the U.S.”

After the sell-or-ban legislation was passed by Congress and signed by Joe Biden last year, the Supreme Court previously decided on January 17 that the law requiring TikTok to stop its operations in the United States if it didn’t divest from Chinese ownership was lawful. In essence, ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, would have to either shut down or sell the app due to concerns that China’s government would exploit its data to hurt Americans. TikTok has previously disputed that the Chinese government would receive information from the app, referring to this as “outright censorship of the American people.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated after the court’s ruling that “President Biden’s position on TikTok has been clear for months…. TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law.”

She additionally stated that because of the “sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognises that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday.”

The next morning, Trump—who in April 2020 originally declared a plan to prevent TikTok from operating in the United States during his first term in office—announced his intention to issue an executive order to halt the federal ban and keep the site operational, at least temporarily.

On his Truth Social platform, the 78-year-old lawmaker stated on January 19 that he will “issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.” His letter came the day after he hinted a possible 90-day extension for TikTok in a phone interview with Kristen Welker, moderator of NBC News’ Meet the Press. “The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order,” Trump tweeted. “Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations.”

The president-elect stated in the same tweet his “initial thought” that the United States could control 50% of TikTok through a “joint venture,” involving the app’s “current owners and/or new owners.”

“By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to [stay] up,” he stated in his post.