TikTok has restarted its services here in America, just 12 hours it shut down following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the forced divesture bill passed by Congress and signed by President Biden last year. President Trump promised to “save” the popular social media app, and has even floated the idea of the United States itself purchasing a 50 percent ownership if its parent company decides to sell. 

TikTok went dark Saturday night, telling its users in a message that they “are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.” By Sunday morning, Trump was calling for the sell-by deadline — which is Sunday — to be extended while a deal is worked out. Following the president-elect’s demands, TikTok said it would resume operations. 

“In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties,” the social media platform said in a statement Sunday. “It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Cotton, said that the social media app was wrong to simply say that they can resume services with the promise of an executive order from the incoming president. The forced divestiture bill, he said, allows a whole host of legal officials from coast to coast to sue or issue sanctions to the app and those service providers like Apple and Microsoft if they continue operations. 

“Any company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law, not just from DOJ, but also under securities law, shareholder lawsuits, and state AGs. Think about it,” Mr. Cotton wrote on X in response to TikTok’s announcement on Sunday. 

Trump has floated a number of options to keep the platform operational in America, though his most recent idea is to have a joint venture between the United States government and private investors buy the app. On Sunday morning, Trump said he would push for the government to buy a 50 percent stake in the company. 

“I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday morning. 

“I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up. Without U.S. approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars — maybe trillions,” he added. 

The bill that was aimed at forcing a sale of TikTok does include a provision that allows for a 90-day extension of the sell-by date, but only so long as the app’s parent company, ByteDance, begins the process of selling. 

Mr. Cotton says — without naming him — that the president-elect is wrong in his assertion that the deadline to sell TikTok can simply be extended by executive order. The only way for TikTok to come online, he says, is for its parent company to start the sale process. 

“Now that the law has taken effect, there’s no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date. For TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that satisfies the law’s qualified-divestiture requirements by severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China,” Mr. Cotton and Senator Ricketts said in a joint statement on Sunday before the resumption of services was announced. “Only then will Americans be protected from the grave threat posed to their privacy and security by a communist-controlled TikTok.” 

One of the most serious concerns that lawmakers have raised about TikTok is not only can it be used as a data collection tool for the Chinese Communist Party, but that the algorithm of the app itself is so powerful that it is making young children more depressed, anxious, and anti-social. 

On Sunday morning, Congressman Glenn Grothman, a Wisconsin Republican, had his district office building set on fire by an angry teenager who wanted TikTok operations to be restored, according to WISN 12 News. When Congress was first considering the forced divestiture bill in 2024, a teenage girl left a voicemail for Senator Tillis, saying she would “find him and shoot him and cut him into pieces” if he voted for the legislation.