TikTok goes offline in the US hours before ban comes in
TikTok has been offline in the United States, just hours before new laws banning the platform took effect.
A message on the app for U.S. users said a law banning TikTok had been enacted, meaning “you can’t use TikTok now.”
“We are fortunate that President Trump has stated that he will work with us to develop solutions to restore TikTok after taking office,” the statement read.
The social media platform previously warned that it would “shut down” on Sunday unless the outgoing Biden administration guaranteed it would not enforce the ban.
President-elect Donald Trump said he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from its ban after taking office on Monday.
Users reported that the app had also been removed from Apple and Google’s U.S. app stores and that TikTok.com did not show the video.
“A 90-day extension is the most likely thing to get done because it’s appropriate,” Trump told reporters. Saturday on NBC News.
“If I decide to do it, I’ll probably announce it on Monday.”
The White House said it was up to the incoming administration to take action.
“We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take action in the days leading up to the Trump administration’s inauguration on Monday,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law passed last April banning the app from being available in the United States unless its Chinese parent ByteDance sells the platform by Sunday, which ByteDance has yet to do.
TikTok argued that the law violated free speech protections for the country’s 170 million users.
After the ruling, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appealed to Trump, thanking him for his “commitment to working with us to find a solution.”
Mr. Zhou is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
in the next few hours Go offline on social media platformscontent creators have been posting videos saying goodbye to their followers.
Creator Nicole Bloomgarden told the BBC that not using TikTok would result in a significant pay cut.
Another user, Erika Thompson, said educational content on the platform would be the community’s “biggest loss.”
Earlier on Saturday, TikTok users received a message saying the law would “force us to temporarily be unable to provide service. We are working to restore service in the United States as soon as possible.”
