Twenty -six days after the veto of US application stores, Tiktok returns to the App Store and Google Play. The giants recovered the application of Video owned by Bytedonce after receiving a letter from the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, in which companies that would not be fined for hosting it were assured, according to Bloomberg information.
Google confirmed to Wired that Tiktok has recovered, but did not give details about the reason. Apple, Tiktok and the Department of Justice (DOJ) did not respond to comments requests. Bondi swore his position last week.
Tiktok’s return lightens the situation
The platform disappeared from US application stores and went out for users throughout the country on January 19, hours before the prohibition entered into force. However, he returned to life later that same day, after the executives received the guarantee of the then elected president Donald Trump that he would give more time to reach a resolution.
After Trump’s possession on January 20, one of his first executive orders gave Tiktok a respite. “I am instructing the Attorney General not to take any action to enforce the law for a period of 75 days as of today to allow my administration to have the opportunity to determine the appropriate course to follow,” says the order.
However, Google and Apple kept Tiktok out of their markets, which means that new users could not install it. This is due to the fact that the American Protection Law against Applications Controlled by Foreign Adversaries (PAFACA), the law on which the Tiktok prohibition is based, establishes that US technology companies cannot “distribute, maintain or update” none Bytedonce application. Those who do would be exposed to large fines. This means that not only the famous social network of video, but also a dozen applications, including Lemon8, Capcut and Marvel Snap, had been unloading for more than three weeks. Those apps They also returned to application stores.
While Tiktok was not available, the users who were looking for it in App Store The following message: “Tiktok and other Bytedonce applications are not available in the country or region where you are.” The “more information” link sent users to a long article in which it was explained why the application had disappeared and remembered that they would not receive updates as long as the prohibition would last. For its part, Google Play Store said: “The downloads of this application are in pause due to the legal requirements in force in the US.” Users went to competition applications, such as Red Note or others, which experienced an increase in use.
What will happen in the future?
Pafaca allows the president to extend to 90 days the deadline to prohibit Tiktok if he certifies the Congress that “significant progress” has been made to an agreement to sell the application to a non -Chinese company. Just before assuming the position, Trump proposed that the US could have 50% of Tiktok’s property, without specifying what he meant. Apparently, the president recently appointed Vice President JD Vance to direct the negotiations between Bytedance and the possible buyers. According to the reports, Oracle and another group of investors would take care of the platform control.
Before Trump assumed the position, other bidders emerged, including billionaire Frank McCourt and the Startup For the perplexity search, but Bytedance has not said publicly if it is willing to reach an agreement. It is possible that the parent company wants to keep the platform algorithm in case of an eventual sale, although it is not clear how Tiktok would be worth without it.
In the middle of the week, Trump told journalists that he expected the process of agreement to conclude before his 75 -day pardon expires in April, but that he was open to expand the deadline: “We have many people interested in Tiktok, and I hope Being able to reach an agreement.
The pafaca is still valid and continues to demand the prohibition of Tiktok if the company is not able to get rid of Bytedance before the extension is exhausted. Republican senators demonstrated against expanding the deadline for application. “Now that the law has entered into force, there is no legal basis for any type of ‘extension’ of its date of entry into force,” said Senators Tom Cotton de Arkansas, and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, in an official statement in January .
Article originally published in Wired. Adapted by Alondra Flores.
#Tiktok #returns #application #stores #United #States
