Donald Trump, the incoming US President. (Pic: White House)
TikTok resumed operations in the US yesterday, thanks to incoming President Donald Trump, according to the company statement.
The company said: “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.”
It added: “It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump to develop a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”
This comes after President Joe Biden’s White House and the Department of Justice ordered the global short form video platform to go offline on January 19.
TikTok is controlled by ByteDance, a Beijing-based technology business, and the Biden administration expressed concern that TikTok was gathering enormous swaths of US customer data that may end up in the hands of the Chinese government through alleged coercion.
US officials also alleged that the algorithm that drives what users view on the app is susceptible to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to alter information on the site in ways that are difficult to detect.
