“Sorry, TikTok isn’t out there proper now,” the message learn.
Hours earlier than a federal law banning TikTok from the United States was set to take impact, the social media app went darkish, and U.S. customers might 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!”
The app additionally appeared to have been faraway from Apple’s U.S. app retailer, some customers mentioned.
TikTok grew to become unavailable after the Supreme Court decision on Friday upholding the law, which requires TikTok’s Chinese language proprietor ByteDance to promote the app by Sunday or in any other case face a ban. The regulation had overwhelmingly handed Congress final 12 months and been signed by President Biden. TikTok, which has confronted nationwide safety considerations for its Chinese language ties, had anticipated to 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 evening, nobody — together with the U.S. authorities — was solely certain what would occur to it when the regulation took impact. America has by no means blocked an app utilized by tens of thousands and thousands of People basically in a single day.
The regulation has a provision to penalize app retailer operators like Apple and Google, and web internet hosting corporations like Oracle for distributing or sustaining the TikTok app. Beneath the regulation, these corporations face penalties as excessive as $5,000 per person who can entry the app.
For TikTok and ByteDance, the developments are a major blow. TikTok has roughly 170 million customers in america, who’re a few of the app’s most profitable prospects. In authorized filings, TikTok has mentioned that even a brief disappearance might kneecap it, with customers and creators leaving for different platforms and by no means returning even when a ban was lifted.
The state of affairs was additional difficult by the regulation’s begin date falling within the closing days of Mr. Biden’s presidency. A White Home spokeswoman advised on Saturday that the Biden administration wouldn’t begin fining corporations on Sunday.
“We see no motive for TikTok or different corporations 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 a press release. “We have now laid out our place clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this regulation will fall to the following administration.”
Mr. Trump mentioned on Saturday he would “most certainly” 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 may be “important progress” towards a deal that may put TikTok within the arms of a non-Chinese language proprietor. It was not clear how that extension would possibly work if the ban had already taken impact.
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 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 of years previous. The “For You” web page stuffed with montages of customers’ all time favourite developments and songs, many courting again to the early days of the pandemic, when the app soared in recognition.
By 9 p.m. Jap on Saturday evening, TikTok was exhibiting 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 briefly unavailable.”
