TikTok is set to decline – for now.
The popular video-sharing app, used by 170 million Americans, was set to go dark late Saturday after TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company announced it would make its services “temporarily unavailable.”
“We regret that a US law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19 and will force us to make our services temporarily unavailable,” the company said in a message sent to users on Saturday night.
“We are working to restore our service in the US as soon as possible and appreciate your support. Please say tuned.”
It was not clear when exactly the app would be shut down, as it was still running just after 9pm New York time.
The announcement drew swift reactions online, especially on X, where #SaveTikTok was trending.
“TIKTOK NOOOO!!!!” one user posted a video of a woman screaming.
“TikTok is over,” podcaster Ian Miles Cheong tweeted on X shortly after the app’s pop-up message.
“It’s happening,” another user posted on X. “TikTok ban in the US is inevitable, but I remain hopeful #savetiktok.”
“Violating our right to free speech on hypotheticals that never happened will be the next rallying cry of the revolution,” another user posted on X. “170 million Americans use tiktok that’s over half the country. #scotus better rethink that, leave us alone.”
The app’s future now rests in the hands of President-elect Donald Trump, who returns to the White House on Monday and has vowed to “save” the app, which he credited with helping him win in November.
Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension to reach a deal.
“We have to look at it carefully,” Trump said. “It’s a very big situation.”
TikTok’s shutdown had been widely anticipated after the Supreme Court upheld congressional legislation requiring ByteDance to divest its stake in the company by January 19 or face a national ban.
TikTok unsuccessfully argued that the law was unconstitutional.
Many users, many of them children, looking to get their fix of videos of dancing and cooking revenge early Sunday morning were redirected to a website with details about the ban.
TikTok’s apparent demise capped a months-long saga that began after Congress moved with bipartisan support to ban the app over national security concerns. TikTok and ByteDance insisted by the deadline that the app was not for sale, and Chinese officials vowed to block any forced sales.
The law requires Google and Apple to stop allowing new downloads of TikTok through their app stores or face a fine of $5,000 per user. Oracle, which provides cloud computing support for TikTok, could also face liability.
Technically, TikTok could have stayed up for a short time for those who had already downloaded it — but it would have gone without software updates or support and gradually degraded into service.
In one of Biden’s final acts last week, he decided to follow through on a decision to implement the law he signed — leaving it up to Trump.
TikTok claimed it had no choice but to shut down because “the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to service providers that are integral to maintaining the availability of TikTok” that they will not face with punishments.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok’s plan to go offline a “stunt.”
Meanwhile, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew profusely thanked the incoming president while hinting that a possible solution was in the works in a video released shortly after the Supreme Court ruling on Friday.
“We are grateful and delighted to have the support of a president who truly understands our platform – one who has used TikTok to express his thoughts and perspectives, connecting with the world and generating more than 60 billion views of the content of him in the process,” Chew said.
Chew ended the video by saying, “More to come.”
Trump also signaled that he would have more to say about TikTik’s future in the coming days.
“The Supreme Court decision was expected and everyone should respect it,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday. “My decision on TikTok will be made in the not-too-distant future, but I need time to consider the situation. Stay tuned!”
Trump is reportedly considering implementing an executive order that would delay implementation of the law. However, it is unclear whether he has the legal standing to do so.
Chew is scheduled to attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday and will sit on the square alongside other tech titans such as Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook and Google chief Sundar Pichai.
The TikTok CEO has been trying to cozy up to Trump in recent weeks as the sale deadline approached. He also met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after his election victory.
The Justice Department and US lawmakers say the app is a spying and propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party — capable of mass surveillance and data collection, as well as swaying public opinion for nefarious purposes.
TikTok has strongly denied the allegations.
On Friday, the Supreme Court unanimously sided with the federation.
“Congress has determined that distribution is necessary to address its well-founded national security concerns about TikTok’s data collection practices and dealings with a foreign adversary,” the judges said.
As The Post reported, the TikTok ban saga also has implications for other tech companies, such as Amazon and Microsoft, that have business ties to ByteDance.
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