TikTok says it is restoring its services in the United States thanks to incoming president Donald Trump, after the Chinese-owned social media platform went dark in the US for around half a day.

US-based users of the popular video-sharing app — of which TikTok claims there are more than 170 million — were shut out of the app on Saturday night, local time, before a federal ban signed by US President Joe Biden and upheld by the US Supreme Court came into effect on Sunday.

The app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, was removed from app stores during this downtime and users who opened TikTok were greeted with a message which said they could not use the platform “for now”.

“We are fortunate that president Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office,” the message read.

While the TikTok app has remained unavailable in Apple and Google’s mobile app stores in the US, local users who already downloaded the app are now receiving pop-ups confirming it is available for use again “as a result of president Trump’s efforts”.

Both major app stores have displayed messages to US users who searched for the TikTok app, citing legal requirements as the reason why they were not allowing new downloads of the app.

In a statement on Monday, TikTok said it thanked Trump “for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties" for hosting the app’s data in the US.

TikTok’s main cloud computing provider in the US is American company Oracle.

“It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship,” TikTok said.

“We will work with president Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”

In a note to advertisers seen by The Verge, TikTok reportedly said while its app was coming back online “for the majority of US users”, it expected “some temporary service instability”.

TikTok’s brief US shutdown came after that country’s Supreme Court upheld a law on Friday which gave the app until Sunday to sell its US business to an American company, or be banned over national security concerns.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court’s nine justices ruled the law — which was passed by a bipartisan majority in the US Congress last year — did not violate the US constitution’s protections against government curtailment of free speech.

Trump vows to extend TikTok sale deadline

On Monday (Australian time), ahead of his inauguration on Tuesday, Trump said he would issue an executive order giving TikTok extra time to find a buyer in the US after his second non-consecutive term as US president began.

The extra time is expected to be 90 days.

“The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order,” he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

“Americans deserve to see our exciting inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations.”

US Congress and some courts can still overturn executive orders or prevent them from taking effect.

Trump said he would still require TikTok’s US business to be sold, but suggested the US government could hold a 50 per cent ownership stake alongside a US company.

“By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say [sic] up,” he wrote.

“Without US approval, there is no Tik Tok [sic].

“With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars - maybe trillions.”

Trump has previously supported banning TikTok in the US — and tried to ban it during his first term as president — but reversed his position ahead of the 2024 US election and has since claimed the app helped him win over younger voters.

Who could buy TikTok?

Several companies and individuals have reportedly been interested in purchasing TikTok’s US business or been considered for the move by government officials, including billionaire and Trump advisor Elon Musk.

Musk, who already owns X (formerly Twitter), was reportedly seen as an option by Chinese officials — reports which ByteDance has described as “pure fiction”.

Artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI reportedly made a bid for TikTok on Saturday, while video-sharing platform Rumble offered to buy the platform’s US assets back in March 2024.

Non-profit internet advocacy group Project Liberty, backed by a consortium of funders and run by billionaire Frank McCourt, said it had also made a bid with the goal of giving US TikTok users “the ability to control, protect, and benefit from their data”.

UPDATE 21/01/25: In an executive order signed on Tuesday, Australian time, newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump asked his country's Department of Justice not to enforce a rule demanding the sale of TikTok's US business for a further 75 days.