ORLANDO, Fla. – TikTok officially went dark for users of the popular social media late Saturday night, just before a ban was set to take effect.
The app is no longer available to download on iPhone and Android phones and users who already have the app are seeing a message that reads “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.”
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Before that announcement went out, the company had said in another message to users that its service would be “temporarily unavailable” and told them its working to restore its U.S. service “as soon as possible.”
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The federal law, that was signed by President Joe Biden last year, required ByteDance to divest its stake in the TikTok’s U.S. platform or face a ban. ByteDance had nine months to sell the U.S. operation to an approved buyer. The company, and TikTok, chose to take legal action against the law and ultimately lost their fight at the Supreme Court on Friday.
Under the statute, mobile app stores are barred from offering TikTok and internet hosting services are prohibited from delivering the service to American users.
Both White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco had said that the Biden administration would leave the law’s implementation to President-elect Donald Trump given that his inauguration falls the day after the ban takes effect.
But TikTok said after the court ruling on Friday that it “will be forced to go dark” if the administration didn’t provide a “definitive statement” to the companies that deliver its service in the U.S.
However, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok’s demand a “stunt” and said there was no reason for TikTok or other companies “to take actions in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office.”
In an interview with NBC News on Saturday, President-elect Donald Trump said he was thinking about giving TikTok a 90-day extension that would allow them to continue operating.
The federal law allows the sitting president to extend the deadline by 90 days if a sale is in progress. But no clear buyers have emerged, and ByteDance has previously said it won’t sell TikTok.
If such an extension happens, Trump said it would “probably” be announced on Monday.
On Saturday, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance to create a new entity that merges Perplexity with TikTok U.S. business, according to a person familiar with the matter. If successful, the new structure would also include other investors and allow ByteDance’s existing shareholders to retain their stake in the company, the person said.
Perplexity is not asking to purchase the ByteDance algorithm that feeds TikTok user’s videos based on their interests and has made the platform such a phenomenon.
Other investors have also been eyeing TikTok. “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary recently said a consortium of investors that he and billionaire Frank McCourt put together offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash. Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also said last year that he was putting together an investor group to buy TikTok.
To read the full statement TikTok users are seeing, read below:
“Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means that 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!”
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