“Sorry, TikTok isn’t accessible proper now,” the message learn.
Hours earlier than a federal regulation banning TikTok from america took impact on Sunday, the Chinese language-owned social media app went darkish, and U.S. customers may now not entry movies on the platform. As a substitute, the app greeted them with a message that stated “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 stated. “Please keep tuned!”
As well as, TikTok’s sister app, Lemon8, 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. CapCut, a preferred video-editing app from ByteDance, was additionally unavailable.
Apple stated it had eliminated TikTok and different ByteDance apps, together with Lemon8, from its app retailer, and customers stated that Google’s U.S. app retailer had additionally eliminated TikTok. Looking for the apps on Apple’s app retailer on Sunday yielded a brand new message: “TikTok and different ByteDance apps should not accessible within the nation or area you’re in.”
TikTok turned unavailable after the Supreme Courtroom resolution on Friday upholding the regulation, 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 considerations for its Chinese language ties, had believed it may 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 manner out of the regulation. Till Saturday evening, 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 consumer who can entry the app.
TikTok and Oracle didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. Google declined to remark.
For TikTok and ByteDance, the developments are a significant blow. TikTok has roughly 170 million U.S. customers, who’re a few of the app’s most profitable clients. In authorized filings, TikTok has stated that even a brief disappearance may 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 sophisticated by the regulation’s begin date falling within the ultimate days of Mr. Biden’s presidency. A White Home spokeswoman prompt on Saturday that the Biden administration wouldn’t begin fining firms on Sunday.
“We see no cause 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 a press release. “We’ve got laid out our place clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this regulation will fall to the following administration.”
A spokesman for the White Home didn’t reply to a request for remark after TikTok went offline. The Division of Justice declined to remark.
Mr. Trump stated on Saturday he would “most certainly” discover a method to give TikTok a 90-day extension as soon as he takes workplace on Monday, and posted a declaration on the social media platform Reality Social on Sunday that learn, “SAVE TIKTOK!” The regulation provides the president the flexibility to increase the deadline for a sale provided that there may be “vital 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.
It’s “actually open to debate and litigation, whether or not that’s potential after the regulation goes into impact,” stated Sarah Kreps, the director of the Tech Coverage Institute at Cornell College. “We’re in additional uncharted authorized territory.”
Mr. Trump has additionally indicated he may signal an govt order to avoid the ban of the app. TikTok’s chief govt, Shou Chew, is anticipated to attend Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
Mr. Trump publicly modified his stance on TikTok in March, after his personal effort to dam the corporate in america in 2020.
On Saturday, the temper 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 means of heartbreak,” Ms. Earle wrote in one video. “This platform is greater than an app or a job to me. I’ve so many Recollections on right here. I’ve posted on daily basis for the previous 6 years of my life. I’ve shared my buddies, household, relationships, private struggles, secrets and techniques.”
Daniel Daks, the chief govt of Palette Media, an company that represents greater than 230 social media stars, stated that he assembled a “struggle room Zoom” with about 30 of his workers late Saturday evening to solutions questions as they flooded in.
“I’m talking with tons of various creators, lots of whom I’ve labored with for 5 years and signed whereas they had been working in locations like IHOP or Starbucks,” he wrote in a textual content message shortly after 11 p.m. on Saturday. “I’m reassuring them that the whole lot can be OK.”
Different customers spent their ultimate moments on the app recreating viral dances. The “For You” web page crammed with montages of customers’ favourite traits and songs, many relationship again to the early days of the pandemic, when the app soared in recognition.
By 9 p.m. Jap on Saturday, TikTok was displaying U.S. customers a pop up message that stated the app would quickly cease working. That unique message didn’t point out Mr. Trump.
It stated the regulation would “power us to make our providers quickly unavailable.” Shortly thereafter, TikTok went darkish.
Late Saturday night, Ms. Earle discovered solace by showing on a rival social media platform: Instagram.
“I used to be simply not anticipating that for this Saturday evening,” she stated of what occurred to TikTok as she livestreamed on Instagram. RedNote, a Chinese language video app that has change into fashionable in latest days, wouldn’t change into a long-term substitute, she stated.
“We’re simply gonna must make it somewhat 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 matter 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 International Occasions, wrote on Weibo. The US had set an instance for “your entire 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 massive 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. Nico Grant and Tripp Mickle contributed reporting from San Francisco. David McCabe contributed reporting from Washington.
