Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store have restored TikTok for U.S. users as of Thursday, after the companies had removed it on Jan. 19.The tech giants pulled TikTok from their U.S. stores because of a federal law effectively banning TikTok as of Jan. 19 because Chinese parent ByteDance had not divested its ownership of TikTok. Penalties for violating the law by hosting or distributing TikTok in the U.S. are $5,000 per user, or as much as $850 billion in penalties (given TikTok’s claim it has 170 million U.S. users). As such, both Apple and Google had removed the app.
Source: Apple, Google Restore TikTok to App Stores Amid U.S. Divest-or-Ban Law