“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 may not entry movies on the platform. As an alternative, the app greeted them with a message that stated “a legislation banning TikTok has been enacted.”
“We’re lucky that President Trump has indicated that he’ll work with us on an answer,” the message stated. “Please keep tuned!”
TikTok additionally appeared to have been faraway from Apple and Google’s U.S. app shops, some customers stated. 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 big.
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 legislation was handed overwhelmingly by Congress final 12 months and signed by President Biden. TikTok, which has confronted nationwide safety considerations for its Chinese language ties, had believed it may win its authorized problem to the legislation, 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 method out of the legislation. Till Saturday night time, nobody — together with the U.S. authorities — was solely positive what would occur to it when the legislation took impact. America has by no means blocked an app utilized by tens of tens of millions of Individuals basically in a single day.
The legislation 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. Beneath the legislation, 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 clients. In authorized filings, TikTok has stated that even a short lived disappearance may 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 legislation’s begin date falling within the closing days of Mr. Biden’s presidency. A White Home spokeswoman urged on Saturday that the Biden administration wouldn’t begin fining firms on Sunday.
“We see no motive 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, stated in an announcement. “We now have laid out our place clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this legislation will fall to the subsequent administration.”
Mr. Trump stated on Saturday he would “most probably” discover a method to give TikTok a 90-day extension as soon as he takes workplace on Monday. The legislation provides the president the flexibility to increase the deadline for a sale provided that there may be “vital progress” towards a deal that will put TikTok within the arms of a non-Chinese language proprietor. It was not clear how that extension may work if the ban had already taken impact.
Mr. Trump has additionally indicated he may signal an govt order to bypass 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 day by day for the previous 6 years of my life. I’ve shared my buddies, 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 stuffed with montages of customers’ favourite tendencies and songs, many relationship again to the early days of the pandemic, when the app soared in reputation.
By 9 p.m. Japanese on Saturday night time, TikTok was exhibiting U.S. customers a pop up message that stated the app would quickly cease working.
It stated the legislation would “pressure us to make our providers quickly unavailable.”
Late Saturday night, Ms. Earle reside streamed through Instagram. “I used to be simply not anticipating that for this Saturday night time,” she stated of TikTok’s sudden shutdown. She stated RedNote, a Chinese language video app that has turn out to be widespread in current days, wouldn’t turn out to be a long-term substitute.
“We’re simply gonna must make it just a little extra enjoyable on right here, that’s what I’m pondering,” she stated of Instagram.
On Sunday morning in China, TikTok’s notification to U.S. customers that it will droop service was a trending subject on Weibo, a well-liked 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. America had set an instance for “your 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 huge take a look at that Trump 2.0 has to face.” Mr. Trump’s actions on TikTok may take a look at his relationship with “China hawks” in Washington, Mr. Diao wrote in a commentary printed on state media.
Claire Fu contributed reporting from Seoul.
