Well, it’s over (for now).
TikTok officially went dark for American users late on Saturday, January 18 — hours before the official ban of the video app took effect in the U.S. Millions of users were affected by the ban as 59% of American adults under 30 use the app, according to the Pew Research Center. The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the app or be banned in the U.S. The unanimous decision backed up the Biden administration’s “national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”
Users were met with two pop-up messages on Saturday night; the first was a simple warning that a U.S. law banning TikTok will render “our services temporarily unavailable.” Shortly after, the app sent another message that named President-Elect Donald Trump specifically.
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately that means you can’t use TikTok for now,” the message read, before forcing users to close the app. “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.”
While TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew indicated in a video message on Friday that he was working closely with Trump to find a solution to reverse the ban once he takes office on January 20, many have pointed out that it was actually Trump who began the process of banning the app in 2020. While he was in his first term of presidency, Trump signed an executive order that imposed sanctions on TikTok, requiring the app to sell its assets to an American company.
In a phone interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Saturday, Trump said he was likely planning a 90-day extension for TikTok to find a solution.
“I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation,” he said.
While Trump appears to be swooping in at the eleventh hour to reinstate the app, some people are questioning if his motives are to win over young Americans by “saving” TikTok.
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