TikTok went down in the United States on Saturday night, less than two hours before it was scheduled to be shut down. The outage left one of the world’s most popular social networks, used by 170 million Americans, inaccessible.
TikTok went down in the United States on Saturday night, less than two hours before it was scheduled to be shut down. The outage left one of the world’s most popular social networks, used by 170 million Americans, inaccessible.
Visitors to the app, CNN writes, saw a message that read: «Sorry, TikTok is currently unavailable. A law banning TikTok has come into effect in the US. Unfortunately, this means you cannot use TikTok at this time.»
It comes after the Supreme Court on Friday upheld a ban that was passed with broad bipartisan support in Congress and signed into law in April by President Joe Biden. The law prohibits American companies from hosting or providing content to the Chinese platform unless it is sold to a buyer in the United States or one of its allies.
UPD. TikTok is back in the US. Details below.
But TikTok may not be gone for long. The company has suggested it could return soon — possibly as soon as Monday.
«We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to restore TikTok once he takes office,» the company said in a pop-up message to users who opened the app starting late Saturday night. «Please stay with us!»
President-elect Trump said he would «most likely» delay the TikTok ban for 90 days after taking office on Monday, adding that he had not made a final decision in a phone interview with NBC News on Saturday.
«I think that’s certainly an option that we’re looking at. A 90-day extension is something that’s likely to be done because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate. We have to look at it carefully,» Trump said in an interview.
«If I decide to do it, I’ll probably announce it on Monday,» he added.
TikTok’s outage — and speculation that it may soon resume operations — is the latest twist in a saga that has dragged on for months, leaving the app’s fate in limbo.
The app has also disappeared from the Apple App Store and Google Play. Other apps owned by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, including CapCut, also showed a similar message on Saturday evening.
Lawmakers have said TikTok’s ties to China and its access to vast amounts of data pose a threat to national security.
Many US users, CNN reports, are bracing for the app’s shutdown, including influencers and other business people who said they make a living from the platform. However, they said they have not given up hope that the app can somehow be saved.
But the Supreme Court’s decision dashed hopes for last-minute legal relief.
Some companies that run app stores and computer servers are said to be concerned that they will be held liable for violating the ban. Those service providers have promised to stop distributing the app to avoid legal repercussions, a person familiar with the discussions at the companies told CNN.
Meanwhile, Trump, who first warned about the dangers of TikTok five years ago, is now casting himself as the app’s savior. Earlier this month, on his Truth Social account, he posted statistics on his own TikTok popularity and asked, «Why would I want to get rid of TikTok?»
TikTok CEO Shaw Chu met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home weeks before the ban took effect and is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
The law, passed last year, allows the president to delay the ban for 90 days, but requires evidence that the parties working to arrange the sale of TikTok to a US company have made significant progress.
But TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, has turned down potential buyers, citing its popularity among American users and its value to small businesses across the country as it fights to stay afloat without a change in ownership.
After the Supreme Court upheld the ban, White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre made it clear that the administration would not enforce the law on Biden’s last day in office.
Because of the federal holiday weekend and inauguration, «the enforcement action simply has to fall to the next administration,» she said.
But TikTok wasn’t satisfied with that statement. According to a person familiar with the matter, some service providers — companies like Google and Apple, which will face hefty fines for giving Americans access to TikTok once the ban goes into effect — have told TikTok that they consider themselves vulnerable under the law, which goes into effect Sunday.
A person close to TikTok says that «several critical service providers» have told TikTok that they will no longer provide the app or its data, forcing the app to go offline. The providers cited concerns that the ban could take effect Sunday, despite signals from the Biden administration to the contrary.
So TikTok took steps to remove the app — at least for now.
TikTok employees were also told on Saturday that the situation was «disappointing» but that the company was working to resolve it.
«We know this is frustrating for you, not only as employees, but also as users. However, we are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to get TikTok back up and running once he takes office. Please know that our teams are working tirelessly to get our app back to the US as soon as possible,» the employee message said.
A White House source confirmed to CNN that the Biden administration will not impose any fines related to TikTok continuing to operate on Sunday.
At the same time, some Biden officials are happy that TikTok will become inaccessible for one day because the law was passed with strong bipartisan support.
The decision «will still be made by the next president,» Biden told reporters on Friday.
On Saturday, the White House called TikTok’s shutdown warning a «gimmick.»
«We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take action in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday,» Jean-Pierre said. «We have made our position clear and unambiguous: the implementation of this law will fall to the next administration. So TikTok and other companies should discuss with them all the issues that concern them.»
A TikTok spokesperson did not respond to the White House statement.
The company said it expects service providers — such as companies that operate video servers — to restrict access to the app at 12:01 p.m. Eastern European Time on Sunday.
In the Apple and Google app stores, the most popular free apps over the past week were TikTok-like apps, including two that are also owned by Chinese companies. One of them, photo-sharing app Lemon8, is owned by ByteDance, the same company as TikTok. But Lemon8 could suffer the same fate as TikTok in the future.
Given Trump’s public statements about TikTok, any shutdown may not last long.
Trump is said to be considering issuing an executive order that could effectively suspend the ban and allow time to find a long-term solution.
But he will face pressure from many sides. Some Republican senators, such as Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, continue to strongly support the ban.
«ByteDance and its Chinese communist masters had nine months to sell TikTok before Sunday’s deadline,» Cotton wrote in X. «The very fact that communist China refuses to allow its sale shows what TikTok is: a communist spy app.»
Analyst Richard Greenfield of LightShed Partners, who has long followed the TikTok saga, expects TikTok to ultimately remain online in the United States.
On Saturday, Perplexity AI, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence search engine startup, confirmed to CNN that it had submitted a proposal to ByteDance to merge with TikTok.
On Sunday, Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he plans to issue an executive order after his inauguration on Monday to «extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.»
He urged TikTok’s partners to allow the app to resume operations, saying that «the order will also confirm that no company that helped TikTok not disappear before my order will bear any responsibility.»
«Americans deserve to see our exciting inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations,» Trump said.
Trump said he was considering extending the ban for 90 days to give him time to reach a deal to sell the app to a non-Chinese owner. In his post, Trump said he would seek a 50-50 joint venture between TikTok’s existing parent company, Chinese company ByteDance, and a new American owner.
The announcement could serve as a kind of immediate political victory for Trump among young Americans. While Trump supported banning TikTok during his first term, he recently said he wants to save the app, posting on Truth Social on Sunday morning: «SAVE TIKTOK!» Last month, he asked the Supreme Court to hold the law in place so his new administration could strike a deal that would keep TikTok available to Americans. The Supreme Court upheld the law on Friday.
About 12 hours after TikTok went down in the United States, many users returned to it as if the outage had never happened, citing President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to save the app.
TikTok’s full restoration will be welcome news for its 170 million American users, many of whom, after weeks of uncertainty, use the app for hours every day to find news, entertainment, community, and in some cases, to make a living.
And this suggests that Trump could score a major political victory by taking responsibility for bringing back a popular platform.
At noon on Sunday, TikTok said that Trump’s promise to save the app allowed it to restore access to American users even before the expected executive order was signed.
«In consultation with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assuring our service providers that they will not face any sanctions, bringing TikTok to more than 170 million Americans and allowing more than 7 million small businesses to thrive,» the company said in a statement. «We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that will keep TikTok in the United States.»
TikTok CEO Shawn Chu is expected to visit Trump in Washington, D.C., on Sunday night before taking a prominent place at the new president’s inauguration on Monday.
But while TikTok’s shutdown only lasted a few hours, securing the app’s long-term future in the United States will likely be more difficult.
