- TikTok has turned off its app for US users.
- The move comes after the company lost a legal challenge to a divest-or-ban law in the Supreme Court.
- The shutdown may not last forever, as TikTok hopes President-elect Donald Trump will step in.
TikTok shut down its app for its US users on Saturday, shortly before the January 19 deadline ordering the app to go dark.
The stoppage came after the company waged a monthslong legal battle against a law that required its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest from its US app or effectively cease operating in the country.
“Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now,” a message popped up on the screen starting around 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time. “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”
The final blow for TikTok came on Friday when the Supreme Court ruled against the company’s legal challenge. President Joe Biden’s administration signaled on Friday that it would not enforce the ban. A spokesperson said that given the “sheer fact of timing, this administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday.”
Still, a TikTok spokesperson said the same day it would need to go dark unless the Biden administration stepped in and offered assurances to its “most critical service providers” that the law would not be enforced.
The White House said Saturday that TikTok’s threat to go dark was a “stunt.”
While TikTok has shut its doors to its 170 million US users, the app will continue to operate elsewhere. The company said in 2021 that it had over 1 billion users globally.
Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, the app’s creators and users took to TikTok to mourn the loss and reflect on the end of an era.
“Losing the majority of my audience is a difficult reality to face, and while I’m doing everything I can to prepare, it’s hard not to feel like I’m starting over,” Sofia Bella, a TikTok creator with 4.8 million followers, told Business Insider.
TikTok’s creators and business partners have had weeks to contemplate the prospect of a January 19 app shutdown. Many have crafted plans for transitioning off TikTok if the app disappeared forever, beginning with downloading all their videos.
Some influencer marketers put contingency plans in place to assure brands that creators would post sponsored content on other apps like Instagram if TikTok goes dark. TikTok Shop merchants and their partners began easing off the app in recent days, with some halting US warehouse shipments or pausing distributing free samples to TikTok creators. And marketers put together plans to shift spend to other platforms like Facebook, Instagram reels, and YouTube shorts.
Yet, even as users have spent days memorializing the app, posting nostalgic video round-ups, and begging fans to follow them on other platforms, it seems possible that TikTok could rise again.
While TikTok lost all of its legal challenges to the divest-or-ban law, it’s now hoping that President-elect Donald Trump can find a political solution to keep its app around.
Trump told NBC on Saturday that he would “most likely” grant TikTok a 90-day extension to find a non-Chinese buyer for the platform.
“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 said, according to the outlet.
“If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday,” he added.
TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew thanked the incoming president in a video on Friday for the “opportunity to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States.”
Trump’s options to rescue TikTok from the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act are limited, legal experts previously told Business Insider. The simplest option may be to help try to split off TikTok’s US entity from the rest of the world, something TikTok’s lawyer, Noel Francisco, told the Supreme Court would be “extraordinarily difficult” over any timeline.
Trump wrote in a social media post on Friday that he would make a decision on the app soon after reviewing the situation.
