TikTok has gone dark in the U.S., the result of a federal law that bans the popular short-form video app for millions of Americans — at least for now.
TikTok users began receiving a message about the ban around 10:30 p.m. Eastern. As of Saturday evening, the app was also no longer available in the Apple or Google Play app stores.
“Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now,” the company’s message reads. “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
The message also suggests this may only be a temporary disappearance. TikTok credits President-elect Donald Trump for indicating “he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office,” with users urged to “stay tuned!”
The company warned earlier this week the app’s disappearance was imminent, saying Friday that it would “go dark” unless President Joe Biden’s administration made a “definitive statement” that it wouldn’t enforce the ban.
Bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate passed last April a law requiring TikTok’s owner ByteDance to either sell the app or see it banned in the United States due to concerns over potential Chinese surveillance, with Biden quickly signing the bill. And while efforts to force ByteDance to divest go back to Trump’s first administration, he has taken a different tone recently. Trump asked the Supreme Court to delay the ban and said he would “most likely” give the company a 90-day extension.
The Supreme Court issued a ruling upholding the law Friday; and the Biden administration seemed inclined to leave the app’s fate in the hands of the next president. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted that with the law taking effect right before Trump’s inauguration on Monday, “actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration.” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco issued a similar statement that “the next phase of this effort — implementing and ensuring compliance with the law after it goes into effect on January 19 — will be a process that plays out over time.”
TikTok, however, suggested this was not enough assurance for “critical service providers” to continue listing or hosting the app in the United States unless the Biden administration made the aforementioned “definitive statement.” Jean-Pierre called TikTok’s response “a stunt” and claimed there’s “no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday.”
Stunt or not, TikTok is gone for now.
As for the app’s long-term prospects, Trump has said he plans to “negotiate a resolution” that would presumably involve a sale or other concessions from ByteDance, which has repeatedly said it’s not interested in selling yet seems optimistic about its prospects under Trump.
Trump reiterated to NBC News on Saturday that he will “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban once he takes office Monday.
“I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. 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. It’s a very big situation,” Trump told the outlet.
Many potential buyers have thrown their hats in the ring, hoping for a shot at TikTok’s 170 million users, from billionaire Frank McCourt making a “people’s bid” to Perplexity AI proposing a merger.
There was even a report suggesting that the Chinese government was considering a sale to Elon Musk as part of a broader deal with the Trump administration. A TikTok spokesperson called that report “pure fiction.”
In the meantime, alternative Chinese-owned apps like RedNote and Lemon8 have received a boost as TikTok users search for alternatives.
