In a new notification sent to users, TIkTok has confirmed it is shutting down in the United States. The company says it is “working to restore” its service in the U.S. “as soon as possible” with the help of incoming President Trump.
Apple has also removed TikTok from the App Store in the United States. Google has removed the app from the Play Store.
CapCut, the popular video editing app owned by ByteDance, is also now offline in the United States and has been removed from the App Store.
TikTok ban officially goes into effect
Here’s the full text of the first notification that was sent to TikTok users around 9 p.m. ET:
Important update from TikTok
We regret that a U.S. law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19 and force us to make our services temporarily unavailable.
We’re working to restore our service in the U.S. as soon as possible, and we appreciate your support. Please stay tuned.
At 10:30 p.m. ET, TikTok officially went offline in the United States. When you open the app, you’ll see the following message:
“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!”
The decision to shut down comes as TikTok’s China-linked parent company ByteDance failed to circumvent a law in the United States requiring it to sell the app or face a federal ban. ByteDance was given nine months to offload TikTok, and that timeline officially expires at midnight tonight. TikTok took its case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the law on Friday.
Will Trump save TikTok?
There are also a lot of politics at play in the United States. The ban goes into effect tomorrow, January 19, the final full day of President Biden’s term. On Monday, President Trump will officially take office. The Biden administration has largely punted the burden of enforcing the law to the Trump administration, but the law still technically goes into effect as of Sunday.
In an interview today with NBC News, Trump indicated that he will “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension:
“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 in the phone interview. “If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday.
In an internal memo on Saturday night (obtained by The Verge), TikTok told its employees that it is optimistic about the app’s future under Trump:
“We know this is disappointing for you not only as employees, but as users. However, 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 know our teams are working tirelessly to bring our app back to the U.S. as soon as possible.”
If Trump follows through on this, TikTok could return to the United States as soon as Monday for at least 90 days. What happens after that, however, remains to be seen. Trump was a proponent of banning TikTok during his first term. The law going into effect tomorrow also had broad bipartisan support when passed last year.
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