TikTok ban: all the news on the app’s shutdown and return in the US

TikTok is now offering US downloads of the Android version of the app on its own website, the company announced last night. With the change, Android users in the United States now have an easy way to download or update the app for the first time since Google removed it from Google Play last month in response to a US ban on the app.

You can download both TikTok and TikTok Lite, a version of the app designed to work with slower internet connections. Once that’s done, you can install or update the app just by opening the file and approving its installation. The process is quick — I was able to update to the most recent version of TikTok on my Pixel 6 in about as much time as it takes to get an app from Google Play.

Read Article >

Oracle and a group of investors that includes Microsoft are in talks to take over TikTok’s global operations, reports NPR. The deal would reportedly see ByteDance keeping a minority stake in TikTok while “the app’s algorithm, data collection and software updates will be overseen by Oracle.” The outlet reports the White House is negotiating the deal, though President Trump has since denied he is working with Oracle.

“I have spoken to many people about TikTok and there is great interest in TikTok,” Trump said on a flight to Florida Saturday, Reuters reported. But according to the outlet, he said Oracle was not among those he’s spoken with:

Read Article >

Mobile card game Marvel Snap is coming back to app stores, starting with Google Play. That’s according to Developer Second Dinner, which announced yesterday it was starting the process of restoring the game to Google’s Android app store at 6PM PT / 3PM ET that day. The developer said in another post it expects the game to return to both Google’s and Apple’s app stores “as early as next week.”

Marvel Snap was caught up in the TikTok outage last weekend because its original publisher, Nuverse, is owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance. The game came back online for players on Monday and Second Dinner said it planned to “bring more services in-house and partner with a new publisher.” As of now, Marvel Snap is still “provided, operated, and managed by Nuverse,” according to the privacy policy on the game’s website.

Read Article >

Nearly a week after it was removed, the TikTok app is still missing from Apple and Google’s app stores.

The app was pulled from both stores after the US’ ban-or-divest law went into effect last weekend, which resulted in the service going dark within the United States. While TikTok came back online shortly after the ban, the app didn’t return to either mobile store. Apple and Google are at risk of paying billions in fines if they make TikTok available, and it’s unclear if President Donald Trump’s executive order refusing to enforce the ban actually removes that risk.

Read Article >

When the Supreme Court upheld a law that banned TikTok from the US, it seemed well aware that its ruling could resonate far beyond one app. The justices delivered an unsigned opinion with a quote from Justice Felix Frankfurter from 1944: “in considering the application of established legal rules to the ‘totally new problems’ raised by the airplane and radio, we should take care not to ‘embarrass the future.’”

Last Friday, the court tried to accomplish this with a narrow ruling: a decision that upheld the government’s ability to ban one service on a tight timeline, while stressing a limited scope concerning “new technologies with transformative capabilities.” Yet, amid a confounding political circus over TikTok, some legal experts believe the Supreme Court’s ruling could have a broad ripple effect on speech and tech law — they’re just not agreed on what it would be.

Read Article >

Meta and YouTube aren’t the only platforms looking to benefit from TikTok potentially disappearing — Substack wants in on the action, too.

The company announced Thursday it’s launching a $20 million “creator accelerator fund,” promising content creators they won’t lose revenue by jumping ship to Substack. Creators in the program also get “strategic and business support” from Substack, and early access to new features.

Read Article >

President Donald Trump says he’d be open to his buddies Elon Musk or Larry Ellison buying TikTok.

“Larry, let’s negotiate in front of the media,” Trump said at a press conference with the Oracle co-founder, SoftBank CEO Masa Son, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to announce a $500 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure investment. “What I’m thinking about saying to somebody is, buy it, and give half to the United States of America. Half, and we’ll give you the permit. And they’ll have a great partner, the United States.”

Read Article >

CapCut, the ByteDance-owned video editing app that’s subject to the same ban as TikTok, is working again in the US.

Users who have the app downloaded have seen a notice on Tuesday welcoming them back to the service and thanking them for their “patience and support.” The notice appears to come after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on the night after his inauguration instructing federal enforcers not to take action against service providers subject to the law for 75 days.

Read Article >

TikTok announced on Sunday that it’s “in the process of restoring service,” but the app is still unavailable in the App Store and Google Play.

As of Tuesday morning, the app is still unavailable, and it is unclear whether that will change due to Donald Trump’s newly issued executive order telling the Department of Justice not to enforce the ban’s penalties. Google and Apple have not responded to multiple requests for comment on whether or not they will list TikTok in their app stores.

Read Article >

Instagram is taking advantage of TikTok’s absence from app stores by offering creators large cash bonuses to exclusively post Reels on the platform, according to a report from The Information. The bonuses reportedly range from $10,000 to $50,000 per month and require creators to post their short-form videos on Instagram before publishing them to other platforms, like TikTok.

In a statement to The Verge, Meta spokesperson Paige Cohen confirmed that the company has launched a Breakthrough Bonus program that lets TikTok creators earn up to $5,000 over three months for posting Reels to Facebook and Instagram. “Over the coming months, we’ll also offer some TikTok creators content deals to help grow their communities on Instagram and Facebook,” Cohen said.

Read Article >

Marvel Snap is back online in the US after access was cut off Saturday night due to the law that banned TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps. The game’s current publisher, Nuverse, is owned by ByteDance.

In a post published Monday evening, the game’s developer, Second Dinner, says that it plans to bring “more services in-house” and “partner with a new publisher” to prevent a similar situation from happening again. The same message is also showing up when you play the game, as shown in a screenshot posted on Reddit.

Read Article >

President Donald Trump has issued an executive order telling the Department of Justice to not enforce a rule that demands TikTok spin off from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or face a ban.

The order, issued on Trump’s first day in office, is meant to effectively extend the deadline established by the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act for ByteDance to sell its stake by undercutting penalties on American companies like Apple and Google working with TikTok. It directs the attorney general “not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way.” The AG is supposed to “issue a letter to each provider stating that there has been no violation of the statute and that there is no liability for any conduct that occurred.”

Read Article >