Apple Keeps TikTok App in US App Store Following Attorney General’s Request

Last Saturday did not mark another last day for TikTok in the U.S., as President Donald Trump extended a 75-day extension on the social media platform’s ban. Meanwhile, Apple needed assurances from the attorney general to keep TikTok in its store for American users.

Image source: Unsplash, Solen Feyissa

As Bloomberg notes, citing its own sources, Apple received a letter on Saturday from Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding that it enforce Trump’s executive order to delay the ban on TikTok in the United States for another 75 days. The American president himself explained his decision by the fact that the upcoming deal to separate TikTok’s American assets would require more time to be agreed upon than initially expected. The threat of banning TikTok in the United States first materialized on January 19, the day before Trump took office as president of the country, but after a few hours of interruption, the application continued to operate, and the head of state signed an executive order to delay the ban until April 5. After that, Trump repeatedly emphasized that if the deal with TikTok’s American assets was not completed by this deadline, he would extend the period of the social network’s operation in the United States.

Back then, it took Apple some time to get TikTok back on its US app store, with the status quo restored by February. The delay created a secondary market for iPhones with TikTok pre-installed, with used phones fetching prices several times higher than new ones. There won’t be a similar pause now that TikTok is available for US iPhone owners to install. The same can be said for Google Android users.

As reported last week, the deal to “land” TikTok in the US was actively discussed with potential participants. The share of shares of Chinese ByteDance in TikTok’s American assets should fall below 20% as a result of the deal, which from the point of view of the US authorities will be a safe level, preventing the Chinese side from influencing the work of the social network with an American audience of more than 170 million people.