TikTok returns to the Apple and Google app storesTikTok returns to the Apple and Google app storesTikTok returns to the Apple and Google app stores

The Chinese-owned social networking app was banned from the two shops on January 18, just as TikTok’s leadership temporarily ceased service in the United States in response to a national security law that went into force the following day.

Nearly a month later, TikTok is back on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Apple, Google, and Oracle may have faced heavy penalties for breaking the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. That statute, signed by former President Joe Biden in April, mandated China-based ByteDance to divest its TikTok U.S. business by January 19 or risk an effective ban on the app in the country.

TikTok has stated that the law violates the First Amendment rights of its over 170 million US users, while the US government has claimed that ByteDance’s ownership and purported ties to the People’s Republic of China make the app a national security threat.

TikTok responded to the Supreme Court’s judgment by threatening to shut down its activities in the United States unless the Biden administration intervened.

Despite being blocked from the two app stores for nearly a month, TikTok had recovered roughly 90% of the traffic it was receiving previous to the law’s Jan. 19 deadline, according to Cloudflare Radar.