TikTok is officially back on app stores

TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings you the biggest news of the day, including TikTok’s U.S. comeback.

Transcript

00:00TikTok is back, at least in the online app stores, that is. The popular social media

00:05app can once again be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play. The restoration

00:10comes after Apple and Google received reassurances from the Trump Justice Department that they

00:15will not be fined for violating a Biden-era ban on TikTok, according to sources close

00:21to both companies. The law, signed by Biden, which went into effect on Jan. 19, banned

00:27TikTok unless its parent company ByteDance sold the app to U.S. owners. Congress passed

00:33the law on concerns TikTok was a national security threat. As part of that original

00:38legislation, app stores were threatened with steep fines if they kept the app available.

00:45Once back at the White House, President Trump signed an executive order that put a 75-day

00:49enforcement halt in place, throwing the tech world into confusion. While some tech companies

00:55backed away from TikTok, others quickly resumed cooperation after a brief shutdown. This

01:01confusion has not cleared up. Trump recently hinted his ban delay might be extended. Meanwhile,

01:08there's been no deal involving a U.S. company to buy TikTok, and it's still not clear ByteDance

01:14or the Chinese government would agree to one. In the meantime, TikTok's 170 million American

01:20users can keep on making and sharing their videos unencumbered, at least for now.

01:26Turning to Friday's market action, investors are taking a steep surprise drop in January

01:31retail sales in stride. Sales fell 0.9 percent at the start of the year and a broad-based

01:37spending pullback. The first drop in retail sales in six months, however, was likely influenced

01:44by wildfires in California and winter storms engulfing large sections of the country.

01:50That'll do it for your daily briefing from the New York Stock Exchange. I'm Conway Gittins

01:54with The Street.