TikTok, the app that rewired America’s attention span, told its 170 million US users on Saturday, 19 January that the party’s over — at least for now.
Users started learning the news via a new pop-up notification ahead of a midnight deadline:
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.,” it read. “Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
The message continued with a glimmer of hope: “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!”
President-elect Donald Trump had weighed in earlier in the day, telling NBC that he’ll “most likely” issue a 90-day reprieve when he takes office Monday, 20 January.
The crackdown follows a January 17 Supreme Court decision refusing to block a law Congress passed last year, demanding TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, either sell its stake or face exile.
The court ruled that concerns over free speech didn’t outweigh national security risks tied to Chinese control of the app.
An earlier notification issued on 18 January was telling users that TikTok was going “temporarily” offline under the new national security law.
Google and Apple had already yanked the app from their stores on the same day. Under the law, companies enabling TikTok’s service were potentially going to be hit with fines of $5,000 per user.
TikTok has also earlier blasted the White House and DOJ for keeping service providers in the dark, saying the government’s “vague” and “unhelpful” messaging is setting the stage for TikTok to vanish from US screens.
“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.”
Without that assurance, it said, the app would have to go dark as scheduled. And now it has.
Edited by Ankush Chibber. If you have any tips, ideas or feedback, please get in touch: talk-to-us@moniify.com
