TikTok stops working in US ahead of Sunday ban, Trump signals likely reprieve
WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump said he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban after he takes office on Monday, a promise TikTok cited in a notice posted to users on the app as it went dark late Saturday.
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. 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,” the message notified users trying to use the app late on Saturday night.
Even if temporary, the unprecedented shutdown of TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, is set to have a wide-ranging impact on U.S.-China relations, U.S. domestic politics, the social media marketplace, and millions of Americans who depend on the app economically.
The United States has never banned a major social media platform. The law passed overwhelmingly by Congress gives the incoming Trump administration sweeping authority to ban or seek the sale of other Chinese-owned apps.
Other apps owned by ByteDance, including video editing app CapCut and lifestyle social app Lemon8, were also offline and unavailable in U.S. app stores as of late Saturday.
“The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate,” Trump told NBC. “If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday.”
It was not clear if any U.S. users could still access the app, but it was no longer working for many users, and people seeking to access it through a web application were met with the same message that TikTok was no longer working.
NordVPN, a popular virtual private network, or VPN, allowing users to access the internet from servers around the world, said it was “experiencing temporary technical difficulties.”
Web searches for “VPN” spiked in the minutes after U.S. users lost access to TikTok, according to Google Trends.
In the meantime, marketing firms reliant on TikTok have rushed to prepare contingency plans in what one executive described as a “hair on fire” moment after months of conventional wisdom saying that a solution would materialise to keep the app running.
