The app has repeatedly name checked the president-elect in pop-up messages and statements, as it navigates a ban in the United States unless it is sold to a non-Chinese owner.

An executive order is an instruction from the president which has the weight of the law behind it. But Trump's order does not overturn the ban. Instead it tells the US attorney general not to enforce the law for now - something experts had expected would be his first move.

Trump said the government should be a half owner of TikTok's U.S. business in return for keeping the app alive, and threatened China with tariffs if it failed to approve a deal.