By HALELUYA HADERO
NEW YORK (AP) — TikTok customers in the USA weren’t capable of watch movies on the favored social media platform on Saturday night, simply hours earlier than a federal ban on the favored social media platform was set to take impact.
The corporate’s app was additionally faraway from outstanding app shops, together with those operated by Apple and Google, whereas its web site instructed customers that the short-form video platform was now not out there.
When customers opened the TikTok app on Saturday night, they encountered a pop-up message from the corporate that prevented them from scrolling on movies.
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.,” the message stated. “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,” the message continued, in reference to President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to “save” the platform. The corporate instructed its customers to remain tuned.
The one possibility the message provides to U.S. customers is to shut the app, or click on another choice that leads them to the platform’s web site. There, customers are proven the identical message and given the choice to obtain their knowledge, an possibility TikTok beforehand stated might take days to course of.
Earlier than that announcement went out, TikTok had stated in one other message to customers that its service can be “temporarily unavailable” and instructed them its working to revive its U.S. service “as soon as possible.”
In Washington, lawmakers and administration officers have lengthy raised issues concerning the app app, which they see as a nationwide safety risk resulting from its Chinese language possession. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a know-how firm primarily based in Beijing that operates the well-known video modifying app CapCut and Lemon8 —each of which have been additionally unavailable for service Saturday night.
Whereas defending the legislation in court docket, the Biden administration argued it was involved about TikTok accumulating huge swaths of U.S. consumer knowledge that might fall into the arms of the Chinese language authorities via coercion.
Officers have additionally warned the algorithm that fuels what customers see on the app is susceptible to manipulation by Chinese language authorities, who can use it to form content material on the platform in a method that’s troublesome to detect. However so far, the U.S. has not publicly supplied proof of TikTok handing consumer knowledge to Chinese language authorities or tinkering with its algorithm to profit Chinese language pursuits.
The statute that targets the corporate was handed by Congress in April after it was included as a part of a high-priority $95 billion package deal that supplied international assist to Ukraine and Israel. President Joe Biden shortly signed it, after which the legislation was shortly sued by TikTok and ByteDance on First Modification grounds.
The Supreme Courtroom unanimously selected Friday that threat to nationwide safety posed by its ties to China overcomes issues about limiting speech by the app or its 170 million customers in the USA.
After the court docket ruling, each White Home Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Deputy Lawyer Common Lisa Monaco had stated that the Biden administration would go away the legislation’s implementation to President-elect Donald Trump provided that his inauguration falls the day after the ban takes impact.
However TikTok stated after the court docket ruling on Friday that it “will be forced to go dark” if the administration didn’t present a “definitive statement” to the businesses that ship its service within the U.S.
White Home Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had known as TikTok’s demand a “stunt” and stated there was no motive for TikTok or different corporations “to take actions in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office.”
Underneath the legislation, cellular app shops are barred from providing TikTok and web internet hosting companies are prohibited from delivering the service to American customers.
The statue permits the sitting president to increase the deadline by 90 days if a sale is in progress. However no clear consumers have emerged, and ByteDance has beforehand stated it received’t promote TikTok.
On Saturday, synthetic intelligence startup Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance to create a brand new entity that merges Perplexity with TikTok U.S. enterprise, based on an individual accustomed to the matter. If profitable, the brand new construction would additionally embody different traders and permit ByteDance’s present shareholders to retain their stake within the firm, the individual stated.
Perplexity is just not asking to buy the ByteDance algorithm that feeds TikTok consumer’s movies primarily based on their pursuits and has made the platform such a phenomenon.
Different traders have additionally been eyeing TikTok. “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary not too long ago stated a consortium of traders that he and billionaire Frank McCourt put collectively supplied ByteDance $20 billion in money. Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin additionally stated final 12 months that he was placing collectively an investor group to purchase TikTok.
Initially Revealed: January 18, 2025 at 8:00 PM PST
