TikTok appears to be restoring service after U.S. ban, still available to Canadians

Canadian TikTok users may have noticed on Sunday a lack of new content from American creators as the app went dark in the United States – but later started to reappear.

TikTok said Sunday it was restoring service to U.S. users after president-elect Donald Trump said he would try to pause a court-ordered ban on the platform with an executive order on his first day in office.

Trump said his order would give the app’s China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer.

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it had unanimously upheld a federal law banning TikTok beginning Sunday unless the platform is sold by ByteDance.

U.S. users started receiving late Saturday a message in the app about the ban, saying they can’t use the platform “for now,” but some of them reported the app was working again on Sunday afternoon.

However, TikTok remained unavailable for download in U.S. Apple and Google app stores.

The U.S. Supreme Court ban does not extend to Canada, which ordered the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business in November after a national security review of ByteDance.

TikTok has filed a legal challenge to fight Canada’s dissolution order, which stopped short of ordering people in the country to stay off the app.

Following the Supreme Court’s announcement, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew indicated Trump had committed to working with the company to find a solution that keeps the app available in the U.S.

Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social account Sunday that his order would extend the period of time before the U.S. law’s “prohibitions take effect.”

The U.S. became interested in banning TikTok in the last few years because it was worried about Chinese national security laws that compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 19, 2025.

The Canadian Press