For the first time in internet history, the United States government has officially banned a major global social media platform, joining the ranks of authoritarian regimes like Russia and China. On Saturday, TikTok officially went dark. Users who attempt to access the app are now greeted with a message that says “TikTok isn’t available right 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,” the message adds. “Please stay tuned!”
It’s the final outcome of legislation Congress passed last year that requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to either sell the app’s American operations or face a nationwide ban. But unlike countries that regularly engage in internet censorship, the US does not have centralized infrastructure to prevent Americans from accessing specific apps or websites.
Instead, the law puts pressure on Apple and Google to delete TikTok from their app stores, or risk accumulating millions of dollars in fines. Both companies appeared to have removed TikTok and other apps owned by its parent company, ByteDance, as of Saturday. Google and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The law also bans companies from providing data hosting services to TikTok. Oracle, which counts TikTok as one of its largest cloud computing customers, reportedly began telling staff to shut down servers that host US TikTok data on Saturday, according to The Information. Oracle did not immediately return a request for comment.
In May, TikTok and a group of US creators appealed to stop the law from going into effect, saying it violated the First Amendment. The Supreme Court rejected those arguments in a unanimous ruling on January 17, concluding that the provision was motivated by “well-supported national security concerns.”
“It’s a blatant violation of the First Amendment,” says Evelyn Douek, a professor at Stanford Law School who specializes in online speech issues. “Unfortunately for me, all nine of the Supreme Court justices disagree, and pretty much everyone that matters is going to listen to their opinion over mine. It’s hard to take the national security justification seriously, though, when in recent days presidents past and future as well as members of Congress seem to be backpedaling on whether an immediate shutdown is necessary after all.”
With days to go until the deadline, President Biden signaled that he’d leave enforcement of the law up to the incoming Trump administration. The move left the app’s fate in limbo, and TikTok urged the Biden administration Saturday to provide definitive assurance that it wouldn’t enforce the law. In response, Biden’s team suggested TikTok raise its concerns with Trump.
On Blind, an anonymous messaging app popular with tech workers, some TikTok employees spiraled about whether they’d have jobs next month, while others went about business as usual. “Anyone else’s manager still scheduling meetings next week about new, upcoming projects without acknowledging the ban whatsoever?” wrote one user. “I have 2025 strategy meetings next week,” another user responded. “I am just doing what I’m told. It’s comforting in a way.”
Trump tried to ban TikTok during his first term, but he later changed his stance after amassing a large following on the platform. The incoming president said on Saturday that he “likely” would issue an executive order on Monday giving TikTok a 90-day extension on the ban. “I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at,” he said in an interview with NBC News.
But the law itself technically limits Trump’s ability to temporarily halt the ban. It permits the president to grant a 90-day extension only if there is evidence that “significant progress” has been made toward a sale, including “binding legal agreements” between the parties.
A colorful assortment of tech and business figures have said they are interested in acquiring TikTok, including real estate mogul and former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers Frank McCourt. Perplexity AI, an artificial intelligence search engine startup, filed a bid to create a new merged entity with TikTok on Saturday, according to CNBC.
Another idea that was reportedly discussed among officials in the Chinese government is selling TikTok’s US operations to Elon Musk, who would combine them with his existing social media platform X, according to Bloomberg. TikTok called the report “pure fiction” in a statement to Variety. On Friday, Trump said that he had a “very good” call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping about TikTok and other policy issues.
Getting rid of TikTok was not a particularly popular policy among the American public. Thirty-two percent of US adults said they supported the government banning the app in 2024, down from fifty percent in 2023, according to a Pew Research Center survey. Thirty-nine percent said they weren’t sure about the idea.
TikTok users spent the week flooding the platform with videos expressing their outrage and despair over the looming threat of an imminent ban. One song with bitterly sarcastic lyrics mocking the US government’s misplaced priorities became their rallying cry: “If you’re asking me, the biggest problem is TikTok It’s not global warming, not access to healthcare—welfare, boring! Corruption at the top, citizens getting shot, With all that’s going on, now’s the perfect time for banning TikTok.”
Hundreds of thousands of US TikTok users also flocked to another Chinese-owned platform, RedNote, in a defiant move meant to show just how little they cared about the national security concerns lawmakers said motivated their decision to ban TikTok. “I don’t fucking care that China has my data, are you joking?” TikTok creator Imani Barbarin said in a video that received nearly 1 million likes. “Everybody has my data.”
Source : Wired
