TikTok stopped working in the US late on Saturday, shortly before a federal ban on the Chinese-owned short-video app was due to take effect.
The app was no longer available on Apple’s iOS App Store or Google’s Play Store. The US Congress passed a law in April mandating that parent company ByteDance either sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or face a total shutdown. It chose the latter.
TikTok said that divestment “is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally”. The company held that line until the very end.
The app’s disappearance has been five years in the making. Donald Trump first proposed a ban on TikTok in mid-2020 via executive order, which did not succeed. Various members of Congress proposed measures that would do the same, only one passed. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act became law, mandating TikTok be sold or be banned.
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. 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,” a message to users attempting to use the app said.
TikTok’s attorney told the supreme court that the app would “go dark” on 19 January. After TikTok disappears from app stores, preventing new downloads and updates, it will gradually obsolesce while the ban remains in place. Without regular maintenance, the app’s smooth functionality will suffer glitches and may become vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
TikTok fought the act tooth and nail in court, arguing that blocking an app beloved by so many would violate their free speech rights, a losing argument. It seemed the bill might disappear before enacted, as a similar provision did in Montana, which banned TikTok within its borders in 2023, the first in the US to do so. The state’s law was overturned before it took effect.
Two days before the deadline for ByteDance to sell the popular app, used by 170 million Americans, the US supreme court ruled that the law was constitutional and that its provisions should stand. Biden said he will leave enforcement of the bill up to Trump. The White House said in a statement on Friday that TikTok “should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership”.
In response to the ruling, TikTok chief Shou Chew angled for the president-elect to save his app. “On behalf of everyone at TikTok and all our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States,” he said in a video posted to TikTok.
Trump tried to intervene on TikTok’s behalf in its supreme court case at the 11th hour, though he himself is the father of the ban. He took a shine to the app during his 2024 presidential campaign after finding a large audience there. He will be inaugurated on Monday and may order the justice department not to enforce the bill, though he said the supreme court decision should be “respected”. It is unclear whether he can totally circumvent a TikTok ban.
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Trump said on Saturday he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a potential ban after he takes office on Monday.
“The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate,” he told NBC. “If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday.”
TikTok users in the US have been defecting not to YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels, though both of those products will likely see a post-ban boost, but to Xiaohongshu, otherwise known as RedNote, a Chinese video-sharing app.
As one user put it: “I’d drop-ship my DNA to the front door of the Chinese Communist party before I watch an Instagram Reel.”
Reuters contributed reporting
