TikTok starts going dark in the US

Sorry, TikTok is not available at the moment, the message read.

Hours before a federal law banning TikTok in the United States took effect on Sunday, the Chinese-owned social media app became unavailable and American users could no longer access videos on the platform. Instead, the app greeted them with a message that a law banning TikTok had been enacted.

We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated he will work with us to find a solution, the message said. Please stay tuned!

TikTok also appears to have been removed from Apple and Google's U.S. app stores, some users said. Additionally, TikTok's sister app Lemon8 stopped working and showed US users a message saying it was not available at the moment. Both TikTok and Lemon8 are owned by ByteDance, a Chinese internet giant.

TikTok became unavailable after the Supreme Court's ruling Friday upholding the law, which calls on ByteDance to sell the app by Sunday or face a ban. The law was overwhelmingly passed by Congress last year and signed by President Biden. TikTok, which faces national security concerns because of its ties to China, thought it could win its legal challenge to the law, but failed.

The outage ended a chaotic period for TikTok, which had made last-minute appeals to the Biden administration and President-elect Donald J. Trump to step outside the law. Until Saturday evening, no one, including the U.S. government, was really sure what would happen once the law took effect. The United States has never blocked an app used by tens of millions of Americans overnight.

The law contains a provision to penalize app store operators like Apple and Google and internet hosting companies like Oracle for distributing or maintaining the TikTok app. Under the law, these companies face penalties of up to $5,000 per user who can access the app.

TikTok, Apple and Oracle did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Google declined to comment.

For TikTok and ByteDance, these developments are a hard blow. TikTok has around 170 million users in the United States, who are among the apps' most lucrative customers. In legal filings, TikTok said even a temporary disappearance could ground it, with users and creators leaving for other platforms and never returning even if the ban was lifted.

The situation was further complicated by the fact that the effective date of the laws fell in the final days of Mr. Biden's presidency. A White House spokeswoman suggested Saturday that the Biden administration would not begin fining businesses on Sunday.

We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take action in the coming days, before the Trump administration takes office on Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a press release. We have made our position clear and direct: action to implement this law will be up to the next administration.

Spokespeople for the White House and Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment after TikTok was taken offline.

Mr. Trump said on Saturday that he would most likely find a way to give TikTok a 90-day extension once he takes office on Monday. The law gives the president the option to extend the sale deadline only if there is significant progress toward a deal that would put TikTok in the hands of a non-Chinese owner. It's unclear how this extension might work if the ban had already taken effect.

Mr. Trump also indicated that he might sign an executive order to circumvent the ban on the app. TikTok Chief Executive Shou Chew is expected to attend Mr. Trump's inauguration on Monday.

On Saturday, the mood on TikTok was somber. Alix Earle, a content creator with 7.2 million followers who rose to fame on the app in 2022, posted tearful videos mourning the platform.

I feel like I'm going through heartbreak, Ms. Earle wrote in a video. This platform is more than an application or a job for me. I have so many memories here. I posted every day for the last 6 years of my life. I shared my friends, my family, my relationships, my personal struggles, my secrets.

Other users spent their final moments on the app recreating viral dances. The For You page is filled with trending montages and user favorite songs, many of which date back to the early days of the pandemic, when the app gained popularity.

On Saturday evening at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, TikTok showed US users a pop-up message saying the app would stop working soon.

He said the law would require us to make our services temporarily unavailable. Soon after, TikTok went dark.

Late Saturday night, Ms. Earle found solace by appearing on a rival social media platform: Instagram.

I just didn't expect this on Saturday night, she said of what happened to TikTok while live streaming on Instagram. RedNote, a Chinese video app that has become popular in recent days, will not become a long-term substitute, she said.

It's just going to have to be a little more fun here, that's what I think, she said of Instagram.

On Sunday morning in China, TikTok's notification to US users of the suspension of the service was a trending topic on Weibo, a popular social media platform similar to X.

This is a dark moment in the development of the Internet, Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the state-run Global Times, wrote on Weibo. The United States has set an example for the entire Western world by silencing online voices in the name of national security, he wrote.

Diao Daming, a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, called TikTok the first big test that Trump 2.0 will face. Mr. Trump's actions on TikTok could test his relationship with China hawks in Washington, Mr. Diao wrote in a commentary published in state media.

Claire Fu contributed reporting from Seoul. Nico Grant and Tripp Mickle contributed reporting from San Francisco. David McCabe contributed reporting from Washington.

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