- TikTok has disabled its app for US users.
- The move comes after the company lost a legal challenge to a sale or freeze law in the High Court.
- The shutdown may not last forever, as TikTok hopes President-elect Donald Trump will intervene.
TikTok shut down its app for its US users on Saturday, just before the January 19 deadline by ordering the app to go dark.
The shutdown came after the company waged a months-long legal battle against a law requiring its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to exit its US app or effectively cease operating in the country.
“Sorry, TikTok is currently unavailable,” a message appeared on the screen starting around 10:30 PM ET. “A law has been passed in the US that bans TikTok. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok right now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to restore TikTok once he gets duty. Please stay tuned!”
The final blow to TikTok came on Friday when the Supreme Court ruled against the company’s legal challenge. President Joe Biden’s administration signaled Friday that it would not enforce the ban. A spokesman said that given the “obvious fact of the timing, this administration recognizes that enforcement action should simply be left to the next administration, which takes office on Monday.”
However, a TikTok spokesperson said the same day that it would have to go dark unless the Biden administration stepped in and provided assurances to its “most critical service providers” that the law would not be enforced.
The White House said on Saturday that TikTok’s threat to go dark was a “stunt”.
While TikTok has closed its doors to its 170 million users in the US, the app will continue to operate elsewhere. The company said in 2021 it had over 1 billion users globally.
Shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision, the app’s creators and users took to TikTok to mourn the loss and reflect on the end of an era.
“Losing the majority of my audience is a hard reality to face, and while I’m doing everything I can to prepare, it’s hard not to feel like I’m starting over,” Sofia Bella, a creator of TikTok with 4.8 million followers. said Business Insider.
TikTok’s creators and business partners have had weeks to mull over the prospect of the app shutting down on January 19. Many have made plans to transition off TikTok if the app disappears for good, starting with downloading all their videos.
Some influencer marketers set up contingency plans to ensure brands that creators would post sponsored content on other apps like Instagram if TikTok goes dark. TikTok Shop merchants and their partners began cracking down on the app in recent days, with some halting shipments to US warehouses or stopping distribution of free samples to TikTok creators. And marketers are putting together plans to shift spending to other platforms like Facebook, Instagram feeds and YouTube shorts.
However, even though users have spent days commemorating the app, posting nostalgic videos and begging fans to follow them on other platforms, it seems possible that TikTok will rise again.
While TikTok lost all of its legal challenges to the takedown or ban law, it is now hoping that President-elect Donald Trump will find a political solution to keep its app around.
Trump told NBC on Saturday that he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension to find a non-Chinese buyer for the platform.
“I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. The 90-day extension is something that would very likely be done because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation,” Trump said, according to the newspaper.
“If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday,” he added.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew thanked the future president in a video on Friday about “the opportunity to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States.”
Trump’s options to save TikTok from the Protecting Americans from Applications Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act are limited, legal experts previously told Business Insider. The simplest option may be to help try to separate TikTok’s US entity from the rest of the world, something that TikTok’s lawyer, Noel Francisco, told the Supreme Court would be “extremely difficult” on any timeline time.
Trump wrote in one post on social networks on Friday that he would make a decision on the application shortly after reviewing the situation.
