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Tiktok has darkened for 170 million US users as a law that requires Chinese parent company ordinances to sell shares in the app or to allow the ban to come into effect overnight.
In a pop-up posted on the Short Form Video app before the midnight deadline, the company wrote: Unfortunately, that means that you cannot use Tiktok for now. ”
“We are fortunate that President Trump has shown he will work with us in a solution to bring Tiktok back to office. Stay tuned!”
Tiktok’s video feed was otherwise inaccessible to users in the US, one of the largest markets. Apps no longer appear in the Apple and Google App Stores.
Other apps owned by ByteDance, including the video editing app CapCut and the social media app Lemon8, displayed similar messages and were not available in the app store.
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On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law passed in Congress last year. This requires the platform to be sold or face a nationwide ban on Sunday. Tiktok denied that the Chinese government would affect the app.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump called the 90-day extension “most likely” to be the deadline when he entered the White House on Monday.
However, midnight businesses such as Apple, Google, Oracle are prohibited from providing services that distribute or host video apps. As the app has become darker, this indicates that it has determined that the risks are too high related to violating the law between the midnight deadline and Monday’s Trump inauguration ceremony. Apple, Google, or Oracle did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
Tiktok said late Friday that a statement from the White House and the Department of Justice “failed to provide the clarity and guarantees necessary for service providers essential to maintain Tiktok availability in the United States.” Ta. “Titktok, the definitive statement to satisfy the most important service providers that guarantee non-enforcement agencies, will be forced to darken January 19th.”
“There is no reason for Tiktok or other companies to take action just days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday,” White House spokesperson Carine Jean Pierre said in a statement Saturday.
According to several people familiar with the issue, the weekly shutdown, when Tiktok and Baitedan executives tried to hash plans to avoid closure, will be a week.
On Friday, Trump spoke with President Xi Jinping and said he had discussed Tiktok with Chinese leaders. China’s state media said the two leaders spoke but did not specify whether Tiktok was part of the conversation.
Tiktok says the spinoff is technically not viable in the time frame, but it has shown that Beijing has previously opposed sales.
Instead, the company pinned its hopes to Trump. Trump has promised to “save” Tiktok during his campaign. Presidential election interest in the app is still partially upon the platform after its use of the platform to engage younger voters during last year’s election campaign.
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Uncertainty has led influencers to lament the loss of the app and lead their followers to rivals such as Meta’s Instagram. It also fostered disruption within the company itself. Until the ban, the company is meant to reassure US staff that even if the app is closed, they will continue to be paid even if they are still at work, according to three people with knowledge of the situation. I was in a hurry.
Marketers, meanwhile, are repurposing advertising spending from the platform. One media buyer said he has suspended all spending on US platforms. But Tiktok still encouraged the budget to be spent on platforms in other markets, the person said.
“It was very messy and people aren’t surprised, but it was really impossible to plan,” said another big advertising agency director.
Additional Reports by Zijing Wu in Hong Kong
