Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Hours before a new federal law banning TikTok from the United States took effect, the social media app showed users a pop-up message saying it would be “temporarily unavailable” starting Sunday.
“We regret that the US law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19,” the message said. “We are working to restore service in the United States as soon as possible.”
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance and has been scrutinized for national security concerns, seems to be preparing its users for how they might go offline. As of midnight, it was unclear whether the app would still be available in the US app store or how it would fare.
The law has provisions to punish app store operators like Apple and Google, and Internet hosting companies like Oracle for distributing or maintaining the TikTok app. According to the law, these companies face penalties of up to $5,000 for each user who can access the application.
TikTok’s message to US users follows the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday upholding the law, which requires ByteDance to sell the app on Sundays or face a ban. The law was passed by Congress last year and signed by President Biden. TikTok had hoped to win legal challenges to the law, but failed.
TikTok made a last-minute plea to the Biden administration and President-elect Donald J. Trump to waive the law. No one – including the US government – was entirely sure what would happen when the law went into effect. The United States has never blocked an app used by tens of millions of Americans.
For TikTok and ByteDance, the development is a big blow. TikTok has about 170 million users in the United States, which is the most active user of the app. In a legal filing, TikTok said that even a temporary ban could bring it to its knees, with users and creators leaving other platforms and never returning even if the ban is lifted.
The situation was further complicated by the law’s effective date falling on Mr. Biden’s last day in office. A White House spokesman suggested on Saturday that the Biden administration would not start giving money to the company on Sunday.
“We don’t see any reason why TikTok or any other company should think about it in the days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. in a statement. “We have made our position clear and straightforward: action to implement this law will fall to the next administration.”
Mr Trump said on Saturday that he would “probably” find a way to give TikTok a 90-day extension when he takes office on Monday. The law gives the president the ability to extend the sale period if there is “significant progress” towards a deal that would put TikTok in the hands of non-Chinese owners. It is not clear how this extension would have worked had the ban been in effect.
On Saturday, the mood on TikTok was sad. Alix Earle, a content creator with 7.2 million followers who became popular on the app in 2022, released a video crying on the platform.
“I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack,” Ms. Earle wrote in a video. “This field is more than an application or a job for me. I have so many Memories here. I have been posting daily for the past 6 years of my life. I shared my friends, family, relationships, personal battles, secrets.
Ms. Earle added that she was “in denial” about the ban.
