TikTok, the app that taught America how to renegotiate its relationship with attention spans, told its 170 million US users on Saturday that it’s going “temporarily” offline under a new national security law that takes effect Sunday, 19 January.
The news broke via a pop-up message:
“We regret that a U.S. law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19 and force us to make our services temporarily unavailable,” the company wrote. TikTok also promised in the notification that it’s working to restore its “service in the U.S. as soon as possible.”
Google and Apple also removed the app from their app stores Saturday. For now, the app still works, but the clock’s ticking.
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This comes after the Supreme Court doubled down on 17 January, refusing to stop a law passed by Congress last year demanding TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, sell its stake or face a ban.
The court ruled that free speech rights did not override national security concerns arising from Chinese control of the app.
President-elect Donald Trump has weighed in since, telling NBC that he’ll “most likely” issue a 90-day reprieve when he takes office Monday, 20 January.
But the law still kicks in at midnight, hours from now, slapping companies that enable TikTok’s service stateside with $5,000-per-user fines.
TikTok hit back late on 18 January, calling out the government for vague and unhelpful messaging that left its service providers in the lurch.
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“The statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans,” it said.
Without a clear directive from the DOJ or the White House, the company says, it’ll be forced to go dark on schedule.
Edited by Ankush Chibber. If you have any tips, ideas or feedback, please get in touch: talk-to-us@moniify.com
