“Sorry, TikTok isn’t accessible proper now,” the message learn.
Hours earlier than a federal law banning TikTok from the United States was set to take impact on Sunday, the Chinese language-owned social media app went darkish, and U.S. customers might now not entry movies on the platform. As an alternative, the app greeted them with a message that mentioned “a regulation banning TikTok has been enacted.”
“We’re lucky that President Trump has indicated that he’ll work with us on an answer,” the message mentioned. “Please keep tuned!”
TikTok additionally appeared to have been faraway from Apple and Google’s U.S. app shops, some customers mentioned. TikTok’s sister app, Lemon8, additionally stopped working and confirmed U.S. customers a message saying that it “isn’t accessible proper now.” Each TikTok and Lemon8 are owned by ByteDance, a Chinese language web large.
TikTok grew to become unavailable after the Supreme Court decision on Friday upholding the law, which requires ByteDance to promote the app by Sunday or in any other case face a ban. The regulation was handed overwhelmingly by Congress final 12 months and signed by President Biden. TikTok, which has confronted nationwide safety issues for its Chinese language ties, had believed it might win its authorized problem to the regulation, however failed.
The blackout capped a chaotic stretch for TikTok, which had made last-minute pleas to each the Biden administration and President-elect Donald J. Trump for a means out of the regulation. Till Saturday night time, nobody — together with the U.S. authorities — was completely certain what would occur to it when the regulation took impact. The US has by no means blocked an app utilized by tens of hundreds of thousands of Individuals primarily in a single day.
The regulation has a provision to penalize app retailer operators like Apple and Google and web internet hosting firms like Oracle for distributing or sustaining the TikTok app. Below the regulation, these firms face penalties as excessive as $5,000 per person who can entry the app.
Google, Apple and Oracle didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
For TikTok and ByteDance, the developments are a major blow. TikTok has roughly 170 million U.S. customers, who’re among the app’s most profitable prospects. In authorized filings, TikTok has mentioned that even a short lived disappearance might kneecap it, with customers and creators leaving for different platforms and by no means returning even when a ban was lifted.
The scenario was additional difficult by the regulation’s begin date falling within the closing days of Mr. Biden’s presidency. A White Home spokeswoman steered on Saturday that the Biden administration wouldn’t begin fining firms on Sunday.
“We see no purpose for TikTok or different firms to take actions within the subsequent few days earlier than the Trump administration takes workplace on Monday,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White Home press secretary, mentioned in an announcement. “We’ve laid out our place clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this regulation will fall to the subsequent administration.”
Mr. Trump mentioned on Saturday he would “most probably” discover a solution to give TikTok a 90-day extension as soon as he takes workplace on Monday. The regulation provides the president the power to increase the deadline for a sale provided that there’s “important progress” towards a deal that will put TikTok within the palms of a non-Chinese language proprietor. It was not clear how that extension would possibly work if the ban had already taken impact.
Mr. Trump has additionally indicated he might signal an govt order to avoid the ban of the app.
On Saturday, the mood on TikTok was somber. Alix Earle, a content material creator with 7.2 million followers who rose to fame on the app in 2022, posted tearful movies mourning the platform.
“I really feel like I’m going By heartbreak,” Ms. Earle wrote in one video. “This platform is greater than an app or a job to me. I’ve so many Reminiscences on right here. I’ve posted each day for the previous 6 years of my life. I’ve shared my associates, household, relationships, private struggles, secrets and techniques.”
Ms. Earle added that she had been “in denial” concerning the ban.
Different customers spent their closing moments on the app recreating viral dances. The “For You” web page crammed with montages of customers’ favourite developments and songs, many relationship again to the early days of the pandemic, when the app soared in recognition.
By 9 p.m. Japanese on Saturday night time, TikTok was displaying U.S. customers a pop up message that mentioned the app would quickly cease working.
It mentioned the regulation would “drive us to make our companies quickly unavailable.”
Late Saturday night, Ms. Earle stay streamed by way of Instagram. “I used to be simply not anticipating that for this Saturday night time,” she mentioned of TikTok’s sudden shutdown. She mentioned RedNote, a Chinese language video app that has turn into well-liked in latest days, wouldn’t turn into a long-term substitute.
“We’re simply gonna must make it slightly extra enjoyable on right here, that’s what I’m considering,” she mentioned of Instagram.
On Sunday morning in China, TikTok’s notification to U.S. customers that it could droop service was a trending subject on Weibo, a preferred social media platform just like X.
“It is a darkish second within the growth of the web,” Hu Xijin, a former editor in chief of the state-run Global Times, wrote on Weibo. The US had set an instance for “the complete Western world” to silence voices on-line within the identify of nationwide safety, he wrote.
Diao Daming, a professor of worldwide relations at Renmin College of China, referred to as TikTok “the primary large take a look at that Trump 2.0 has to face.” Mr. Trump’s actions on TikTok might take a look at his relationship with “China hawks” in Washington, Mr. Diao wrote in a commentary revealed on state media.
Claire Fu contributed reporting from Seoul.
