TikTok no longer accessible in US

TikTok blocked access to American users late Saturday night, just hours before a law banning the popular video-sharing platform was set to go into effect. 

“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now,” a message reads when American users open the app.

“We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!” 

As of 11 p.m. ET Saturday, TikTok appeared to be unavailable for new downloads on Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store – two of the most popular distributors for the video sharing platform.

It comes after days of speculation and confusion over the platform’s future.  

The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the divest-or-ban law, which gave TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance until Sunday to divest from the app.   

The Biden administration said Friday that it did not plan to enforce the law and would instead leave its implementation to the incoming Trump administration.   

Later in the day, TikTok clarified it planned to “go dark” until President Biden stepped in, claiming the White House and Justice Department did not provide the “necessary clarity and assurance to the serviced providers.”

The White House called TikTok’s statement a “stunt,” on Saturday, claiming the app did not have to take action before Trump is sworn in on Monday.   

Trump said Saturday that he would most likely give TikTok a 90-day extension.   

“The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate. We have to look at it carefully,” Trump said in a call with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker. “It’s a very big situation.”  

The law, which passed Congress with wide bipartisan majorities and was signed by President Biden in April, allows the president to provide a 90-day extension, as long as progress is being made toward a divestiture.

Following Friday’s Supreme Court decision, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew thanked the president-elect for his commitment to finding a solution to keep the app accessible in the U.S. Chew, who met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last month, is set to attend Monday’s inauguration. 

While the app’s message and Trump’s remarks suggest the app could be revived in the U.S. soon, it remains unclear exactly what that would look like and how long a divestiture deal could take to hammer out.

Numerous companies and billionaires are rumored to have an interest in purchasing the social media platform.

The search engine platform Perplexity AI submitted a bid to merge with TikTok earlier on Sunday, a source familiar told The Hill. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was also rumored to be in consideration for a deal, though TikTok called the speculation “pure fiction.”  

Investor Kevin O’Leary said Friday that he offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash to buy the platform. O’Leary, who is best known for “Shark Tank,” also recently joined a bid led by billionaire Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty to purchase the app.

However, ByteDance and TikTok have long maintained that selling the app is not feasible.

In the meantime, other alternative apps like Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu could continue to see an influx of users searching for a replacement. The app surged to become the most downloaded free app on Apple’s Apple Store earlier this week.

Lemon8, another ByteDance-owned app, also surged in usership this week, though the divest-or-ban law applies to TikTok and ByteDance subsidiaries, meaning the app will face similar challenges in the U.S. 

Updated at 11:15 p.m. EST.