‘TikTok could malfunction’: app’s future in limbo as it remains off US app stores
‘TikTok could malfunction’: app’s future in limbo as it remains off US app stores
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Apple and Google cautious about Trump order amid rumours Oracle founder Larry Ellison could buy site. TikTok is back in the US – but Apple and Google are not sure if it should be. The short video app has yet to appear on the tech companies’ app stores, reflecting an unease about the White House executive order that has given TikTok the confidence to resume operations after temporarily shuttering the service on 18 January. Apple and Google do not appear to agree.
The legislation forbade companies from distributing, maintaining or updating TikTok – for instance, selling it on an app store – after a deadline of 19 January. But the executive order, signed within hours of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, suspended for 75 days enforcement of an act that demanded the Beijing-based owner of TikTok, ByteDance, sell the app’s US operation or face a de facto ban.
The order seeks to reassure companies that work with TikTok that they will not be prosecuted for keeping the social media app on US users’ smartphone screens. It also instructs the attorney general – who leads the Department of Justice (DoJ) – to issue a letter reassuring those entities that the law has not been violated and there is no liability for their conduct.
Nonetheless, Apple and Google have taken TikTok off their stores, meaning US smartphone users cannot download it. In the rest of the world, the app is free to access as before. In China, ByteDance runs a sister app, Douyin. Oracle, the cloud computing provider that delivers the app’s content, has not pulled the plug in the US. Larry Ellison, Oracle’s founder and the world’s fourth richest person with a $209bn (£167bn) fortune, has been suggested by Trump as a potential buyer of TikTok.
