TikTok returns within the US on Google’s Play Retailer and Apple’s App Retailer after Trump delays ban until April 5

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TikTok returned on the Google Play Retailer and Apple App Retailer within the US on Thursday, February 13, 2025, with President Donald Trump signing an govt order to delay its ban until April 5.

TikTok app brand is seen on this illustration.(Reuters)

It is a 75-day window from the unique January 19 ban, permitting the corporate owned by China’s ByteDance to proceed US operations briefly.

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Why was TikTok initially banned within the US?

US lawmakers of the earlier administration handed the ban because of issues about its Chinese language possession.

They feared that the short-format video app utilized by 170 million customers within the US could possibly be used to spy on Americans.

It’s because China requires its firms to share knowledge with the federal government upon request.

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Consequently, the laws, referred to as ‘Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act’ was signed into legislation and it required ByteDance to promote the US enterprise alone to ideally American arms.

Nonetheless, Trump signed the manager order delaying its ban on January 20, regardless of having beforehand supported it. “I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn’t have originally,” a Bloomberg report quoted him as saying when he signed the manager order.

Nonetheless, the way forward for TikTok within the US remains to be questionable. The app will be probably shut down once more if a deal just isn’t negotiated by early April to handle the nationwide safety issues.

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TikTok was the second most downloaded app within the US, with over 52 million downloads in 2024 alone, in line with the Reuters report which cited knowledge from market intelligence agency Sensor Tower.

About 52% of TikTok’s complete downloads got here from the Apple App Retailer whereas 48% got here from the Google Play Retailer within the US final 12 months, in line with the report.