TikTok stopped working in the United States on Saturday evening, shortly before a federal ban on the Chinese-owned short-video app took effect.
The app was no longer available on Apple’s iOS App Store or Google’s Play Store. The US Congress passed a law in April requiring parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or face a complete shutdown. He chose the latter solution.
TikTok said divestment “is simply not possible: neither commercially, nor technologically, nor legally.” The company held this line until the very end.
The app’s disappearance lasted five years. Donald Trump first proposed a ban on TikTok in mid-2020 via an executive order, which was unsuccessful. Several members of Congress proposed measures along the same lines, only one was adopted. The Protecting Americans from Apps Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act became law, requiring TikTok to be sold or banned.
“In the United States, a law was passed banning TikTok. Unfortunately, this means you can’t use TikTok at the moment. We’re fortunate that President Trump has indicated he will work with us on a solution to restore TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned,” reads a message to users attempting to use the app.
TikTok’s lawyer told the Supreme Court that the app would “go dark” on January 19. After TikTok disappears from app stores, preventing new downloads and updates, it will gradually become obsolete as long as the ban remains in effect. Without regular maintenance, the proper functioning of the application will suffer from glitches and could become vulnerable to cyberattacks.
TikTok fought this law tooth and nail in court, arguing that blocking an app loved by so many people would violate their right to free speech, a losing argument. It looked like the bill might disappear before being signed into law, as a similar provision did in Montana, which banned TikTok within its borders in 2023, the first in the United States to do so . The state law was struck down before it took effect.
Two days before the deadline set by ByteDance to sell the popular application, used by 170 million Americans, the US Supreme Court ruled that the law was constitutional and that its provisions should be upheld. Biden said he would leave enforcement of the bill to Trump. The White House said in a statement Friday that TikTok “should remain accessible to Americans, but simply under American ownership.”
In response to the move, TikTok chief Shou Chew asked the president-elect to save his app. “On behalf of everyone at TikTok and all of our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to working with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States,” he said. -he declared in a video published on TikTok. .
Trump tried to intervene at the last minute on TikTok’s behalf in its Supreme Court case, despite being the father of the ban himself. He discovered the app during his 2024 presidential campaign after finding a large audience there. He will be sworn in Monday and could order the Justice Department not to enforce the bill, although he said the Supreme Court’s decision should be “respected“. We don’t know if he can completely circumvent a TikTok ban.
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Trump said Saturday he would “most likely” grant TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a possible ban after he takes office Monday.
“The 90-day extension is something that will most likely be done, because it’s appropriate,” he told NBC. “If I decide to do it, I will probably announce it on Monday.”
TikTok users in the United States have turned not to YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels, although both of those products will likely see a boost after the ban, but to Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, an app Chinese video sharing.
As one user said: “I would send my DNA to the front door of the Chinese Communist Party before watching an Instagram Reel.” »
Reuters contributed to this report