TikTok shuts down as U.S. ban takes effect

TikTok’s app and website effectively shut down in the United States late Saturday just before a nationwide ban against the video-sharing platform came into force.

The company showed its millions of American users a pop-up message that thanked President-elect Donald Trump for indicating he will work with the company on a solution when he takes office on Monday.

Around 10:30 p.m. Eastern time Saturday night, users across the country were suddenly unable to scroll the app or website, access their profile or see any saved favorites. The pop-up linked to another page on TikTok’s website that said users could still download their data and included a link.

Soon after the app went dark, Apple and Google both removed the app from their app stores — the only way for most Americans to download TikTok if they don’t already have it on their phones. The app itself remains on people’s devices, unusable with a shadow of the last video they watched in the background.

Under the law, app store providers and internet hosting services could face massive fines for updating TikTok’s app or carrying its website once the ban takes effect on Sunday. Ten other ByteDance apps were also removed from app stores, including Lemon8 and video editing app CapCut.

Google spokesperson Danielle Cohen declined to comment on the company shutting down access to TikTok through its app store. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a post to its website early Sunday, Apple said ByteDance apps would no longer be available to download or receive updates through the App Store, and that some functions might become limited.

“Apple is obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates,” said the post.

President Joe Biden last year signed a law Congress had passed with bipartisan support to force TikTok to divest from Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a ban, citing concerns that Beijing could use the app to surveil or influence American users. TikTok and a group of creators challenged the ban-or-sale measure in court, arguing it violated their First Amendment free expression rights.

The Supreme Court rejected those arguments Friday, upholding the law in a unanimous ruling that found Congress had “good reason to single out TikTok for special treatment” in passing it. With no deal for a sale imminent, the decision all but ensured the platform would at least begin to shut down Sunday.

While the law largely seeks to force TikTok’s business partners to implement a ban, how exactly it would unfold remained unclear in the run-up to its enactment.

TikTok executives had discussed immediately taking their app offline on Sunday to highlight the impact of the restriction, but the plans had not been final, as The Washington Post previously reported. Google, Apple and other business partners remained mum on their plans as TikTok’s legal battle unfolded.

Then, just before 9 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, the app displayed an alert for its U.S. users that read: “We regret that a U.S. law banning TikTok will take effect on Jan. 19 and force us to make our services temporarily unavailable. We’re working to restore our service in the U.S. as soon as possible, and we appreciate your support. Please stay tuned.”

TikTok said late Friday that without clearer assurances from the Biden administration that companies would not be fined for violations, the app would be “forced to go dark” Sunday. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Saturday called the move “a stunt” and said the administration sees “no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days” to implement the law before Trump takes office.

The mentions of Trump in the official notifications to users on TikTok come on the heels of his vague pledges to “save” the app. Trump is set to be sworn in on Monday, giving TikTok an immensely powerful ally in its fight to stay alive in the United States. Trump has little recourse to rescue the app until he is in office, however, and even after he retakes power there are lingering questions about how he plans to resolve the dispute.

Trump said Friday that he will make a decision on TikTok in the “not too distant future,” adding that he needs “time to review the situation.” Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he will “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension to try to find a buyer. It’s unclear whether an extension would immediately reverse the ban, however, and this month the Supreme Court questioned in oral arguments whether Trump could extend a ban past the deadline for the company to divest.

The remarks for now leave TikTok’s U.S. users in a state of indefinite limbo.

Adding to the uncertainty, AI search company Perplexity approached TikTok’s owners ByteDance with a proposal to merge the two companies with the goal of allowing TikTok to continue to operate in the U.S., according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private information.

In its last hours, TikTok was flooded with a burst of goodbye content. It had the energy of the last day of school or a gathering to watch the end of the world. Brands were extra unhinged, well-known creators lifted the veil on their online personas and spilled their secrets, and more than a few people recorded themselves in tears — a TikTok staple.

There were edits of the app’s greatest and most viral moments, fake funerals, and pleas by creators to follow them on other platforms. The app was also filled with angry videos. People derided the move to block TikTok instead of passing meaningful privacy regulation that could apply to all social media companies. They called out Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley players, who they believed played a role in going after the competition.

Farewells happened in person, too. Rachel Findlay, 29, and her friends decided to throw TikTok a going away party Saturday afternoon to rewatch classic posts and eat viral TikTok dishes. They had the famous feta pasta, Emily Mariko’s salmon rice bowl, Logan Moffitt’s cucumber salad, and made a trauma dump candy salad. They took turns projecting their favorite videos on the TV.

An art director in Los Angeles, Findlay has been on the app since 2020. She uses it for entertainment and work, but isn’t dreading a break as much as others.“ “I’m not going to get on Meta, I’ll just have some time for my own thoughts instead of doomscrolling each day,” she said.

After it sputtered to a stop, TikTok users were left with the alert and a shadow of the last app they watched in the background.

There was a flurry of memes and comments about the ban on X and Threads, but little on TikTok’s direct competitors, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. The Chinese app Xiaohongshu also known as RedNote where many TikTok users fled in the week leading up to the ban, also had some posts from and about TikTokers.

Many sought comfort and community on platforms that weren’t in danger of shutting down or owned by Meta or Google. More than 10,000 people joined a Discord channel called “nothinghappeninghere” on Saturday — a fast-paced offshoot of a subreddit that acted as “a safe place for us to organize and talk in the wake of losing the silly little app that we loved so much” to plan and commiserate.

Once the app had declared itself unavailable, users immediately blasted messages at each other confirming their fears had come to pass — and then they got to work. Some began triaging VPN options (none of which seemed to work). Others demanded boycotts of social media services owned by Meta.

More than a few said they couldn’t believe how many times they kept trying to open TikTok, purely out habit, and a surprising number urged members of this day-old community to run for office.

“I personally feel like I’m going to have a lot of free time, which is good. I should go read a book or something,” Findlay said. (The Washington Post)

The post TikTok shuts down as U.S. ban takes effect appeared first on nationnews.com.