TikTok stopped working in the United States late on Saturday and disappeared from Apple and Google app stores ahead of a law that takes effect on Sunday requiring the shutdown of the platform used by 170 million Americans.
President-elect Donald Trump has 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.
"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 and culturally.
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.
TikTok, which has captivated nearly half of all Americans, powered small businesses and shaped online culture, warned on Friday it would go dark in the U.S. on Sunday unless President Joe Biden's administration provided assurances to companies such as Apple and Google that they will not face enforcement actions when a ban takes effect.
MOVE TO ALTERNATIVES
Under the law passed last year and upheld on Friday by a unanimous Supreme Court, the platform had until Sunday to cut ties with its China-based parent or shut down its U.S. operation to resolve concerns it poses a threat to national security.
Biden's White House reiterated on Saturday that it was up to the incoming administration to take action.
"We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
TikTok did not respond to a request for comment on the White House statement.
The Chinese embassy in Washington on Friday accused the U.S. of using unfair state power to suppress TikTok. "China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests," a spokesperson said.
Uncertainty over the app's future had sent users - mostly younger people - scrambling to alternatives including China-based RedNote. Rivals Meta and Snap have seen their share prices rise this month ahead of the ban, as investors bet on an influx of users and advertising dollars.
"This is my new home now," wrote a user in a RedNote post, tagged with the words "tiktokrefugee" and "sad".
Minutes after TikTok's U.S. shutdown, other users took to X.
"I didn’t really think that they would cut off TikTok. Now I’m sad and I miss the friends I made there. Hoping it all comes back in just a few days," wrote @RavenclawJedi.
'HAIR ON FIRE' MOMENT
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.
Users on Instagram fretted about whether they would still receive merchandise they had bought on TikTok Shop, the video platform's e-commerce arm.
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 materialize to keep the app running.
There have been signs TikTok could make a comeback under Trump, who has said he wants to pursue a "political resolution" of the issue and last month urged the Supreme Court to pause implementation of the ban.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to attend the U.S. presidential inauguration and attend a rally with Trump on Sunday, a source told Reuters.
Suitors including former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt have expressed interest in the fast-growing business that analysts estimate could be worth as much as $50 billion. Media reports say Beijing has also held talks about selling TikTok's U.S. operations to billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk, though the company has denied that.
U.S. search engine startup Perplexity AI submitted a bid on Saturday to ByteDance for Perplexity to merge with TikTok U.S., a source familiar with the company's plans told Reuters. Perplexity would merge with TikTok U.S. and create a new entity by combining the merged company with other partners, the person added.
Privately held ByteDance is about 60% owned by institutional investors such as BlackRock and General Atlantic, while its founders and employees own 20% each. It has more than 7,000 employees in the U.S.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
70 Comments
Login to comment
sakurasuki
It doesn't matter, in Japan still can use Tiktok from Japan's in App Store and Play Store.
Sorry for those US user that become victim of trade war, which making excuse as national security.
Those kids will still dance around using Instagram or other social media platform.
Japanoob
.... and 334.9 million people discover what a book is.
wtfjapan
Sorry for those US user that become victim of trade war, which making excuse as national security.
SCOTUS would disagree, Tiktok and still be used in te US if ownership is in a freiendly country, Tiktok is efectively owned by the CCP
JboneInTheZone
Trump indicated he’ll give them a 90 day reprieve which makes sense as Trump loses the complete opposite of what’s best for the American people at every turn
JboneInTheZone
Does* not loses
John-San
Real USAmerican don't use a Chinese platform. So these 170 million must be illegals right.
Wesley
Wouldn't have been an issue if American software companies came up with a home grown platform that will be even more popular.
deanzaZZR
I guess they failed. A Chinese company simply out-innovated your American software companies. 170 million users is proof.
wallace
I never used it but the app is no longer available on my American iPhone.
NCIS Reruns
There's a certain irony when Tiktok invokes Americans' First Amendment's right to free speech when it's owned by a company based in China, whose citizens are blocked from viewing US media (Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, news sites, etc.) by its "Great Firewall."
Hervé L'Eisa
As a person who hasn't used/viewed TikTok, as with websites, can people use a VPN to bypass the block?
isabelle
It amuses me the way that TikTok always stresses that it is headquartered in Singapore and LA, and not beholden to China in any way. However, the Chinese government regularly comes out with statements like this, and threatens to block any sale through technology export rules.
If the company really were independent of China, surely the Chinese government wouldn't make such a fuss, and wouldn't be able to block a sale?
The idea that TikTok and Bytedance don't do Beijing's bidding is utterly laughable.
wallace
TikTok on YouTube has also stopped.
isabelle
Strange how Trump changed his tune on TikTok since one of his major donors has a huge stake in it.
It's almost as if he is only thinking of himself, not the country. Imagine that.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps-tiktok-ban-reversal-after-meeting-megadonor-stake/story?id=108013785
Indeed there is.
And their argument about a TikTok ban suppressing free speech is totally spurious. It's not the speech which would be banned, but the platform. People can still post exactly the same speech: just not on a platform that is controlled by an aggressive, totalitarian state.
India has the right idea: ban Chinese apps.
Blacklabel
oh so the 170 million American users begging him to restore it are what in this false narrative?
He’s not actually thinking of them and they want with his actions?
robert maes
A very good thing. Maybe people find that they are better of without and creativity increases again.
isabelle
I said the country, meaning national security and the national interest.
Allowing the CCP to harvest detailed user data, control what millions of people do and don't see, and promote pro-CCP narratives and disinformation is clearly not in the interests of the country, as lawmakers have agreed.
deanzaZZR
Holy smokes. Sounds dangerous! TikTok is a private company with HQs in the USA, data servers as well. Do you have evidence for your accusations?
ian
Hahaha
ian
Would be a little difficult if the servers you want to access are in the US.
John-San
From the Trump mouth. during the week. My decision on TikTok will be made in the not-too-distant future, but I must have time to review the situation,” meaning I talk to Xi
Friday :TikTok was among the topics in his conversation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Saturday: He would "most likely" give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban after he takes office on Monday,
So Trump is taking instruction already for Xi and not in office yet. LOL
Five Families
Good riddence!
The app just spreads evil. And collects all your information to sell to the highest bidder.
A gate way to wide spread hacks.
isabelle
It doesn't matter where the servers are if Beijing can access everything anyway, as has been stated by a former TikTok employee. There is also evidence of TikTok spying on protesters (such as in Hong Kong) and journalists, and manipulating feeds to promote pro-CCP content.
I could provide links, but you won't read them and will likely dismiss them as fake news, as you usually do, so I won't waste my time.
However, what you cannot deny is that China's 2017 National Intelligence Law compels all citizens to assist in matters of state security (defined arbitrarily by the CCP). Therefore, even if TikTok/ByteDance has done nothing wrong (and it certainly has), this alone is enough to ban TikTok as, in cases of national security, you don't wait for "evidence" that an enemy state has done you wrong: you act to prevent this before it happens.
John-San
Five; Are you referring to the NSA lol.
Agent_Neo
This will be an example of the US government doing its job well for its citizens.
The Japanese government should also immediately suspend LINE and switch to other services.
deanzaZZR
TIL watching silly dances on TikTok poisoned my brain with CCP (CPC) propaganda. Thank you Uncle Joe for setting me straight!
deanzaZZR
Meta is a menace. I agree wholeheartedly.
iron man
Good riddance. Are any off you brave enough to try Red-Note? available on Apple store and with more fun and far fewer influencer rip-offs. I refuse to use social media stuff, more productive things to do in the life span. oops I crossed into the CCP diseased person again. Many unitians are opening and enjoying RED note. just providing info you may have dismissed. Isabelle, please don't comment unless you know people who live there. apologies, brainwashing comments!
quercetum
The only thing you can do when you can't beat your competition.
justasking
And because Biden signed it, naturally Trump will be against it.
isabelle
Oh, anyone is allowed to post whatever they want here (forum rules permitting).
You see, Japan is -- very much unlike China -- a free country.
Bob Fosse
Whatever happened to truthsocial? I heard that was going to replace TikTok back when 45 wanted to ban it.
Now maga love TikTok. Weird.
Five Families
Take China and the all the controversy out of it.
Ask yourself. Do you want your children actively engaged with this app?
I sure as hell do not want my kids learning the new and latest twerks and bum shaking dancses, to boot links to the Bop barley legal stuff. and Only fans.
The app along with Instagram, Threads. It takes only one like on some girl in Thailand shaking her thing. And they are on you like a fleas to a stray dog.
Pornography is pure evil.
These apps run unregulated. Unfiltered. Let your kids read a books. Or better yet read a book to them.
Bob Fosse
Did you delete the app after?
Peter Neil
tiktok in china is turned off at 10pm.
content is more educational, like science and math, not adults acting like 10-year olds punking people and nonsense.
elon musk would destroy it just like he turned twitter into a cesspool.
u.s. social media is eerily silent because they’re the ones behind the scenes who lobbied for the government ban. tiktok sucked massive advertising revenue from all of them.
follow the money - who benefits?
american social media would rather be the one collecting user data, because they’re so honest…
Eat the left
Or in the 'west':
That doesn't seem to bother you, though. Hypocrisy?
factchecker
Good. Make it global.
Fos
The usual sheer hypocrisy Made in America. Let’s not forget the NSA scandal in 2016 when the US department of State had been proved, it was spying all the allies in Europe and beyond.
isabelle
I don't disagree with that at all. But giving this power to an enemy state is orders of magnitude more dangerous. (And, make no mistake, China is an enemy state, despite the diplomatic niceties.)
TikTok and other vectors for CCP surveillance/influence operations (such as WeChat) should be banned, and appropriate legislation for domestic/other companies (though, not bans) should follow.
Both should have been done years ago, and worldwide.
deanzaZZR
Is this a theoretical "enemy state" or the "enemy state" of the country you are a citizen of that you will not disclose?
osan
Classical western hypocrisy. When they can’t control and manipulate it as they wish, all that freedom of speech, open markets etc become irrelevant.
ian
So what are the alternatives for people who need their tik-tok fix?
ian
Less dancing in the us now I guess
Pukey2
The Little Red Book!!!!
isabelle:
I noticed you didn't respond to the question whether you know anyone from China. In other words, you don't, but you continue to come up with the usual CIA talking points. Got your 5 cents of the day? There's a big 1.6 billion dollar fund created by the Biden regime.
You mean those thugs who set buildings and innocent people on fire? Or those who verbally and physically abused the elderly who tried to clear up the debris. Cry me a river. You know NOTHING about Hong Kong. More CNN and BBC talking points, straight out of the MSM's playbook.
five families:
TikTok is not Only Fans which I notice, like P*rnhub, isn't banned in USA. Lots of people sell legitimate goods on TikTok. You can get twerks on X, Instagram and FB. But I guess, it's ok if it's the US government and CIA who are doing the spying.
The good thing to come out of this is that droves of Americans are now flocking to Xiaohongshu, and actually interacting with Chinese and shocked at how better their lives in China are, concerning medical care, prices of food, and that the Chinese are not demons. These people are sending a message to their own government in USA - they're done with the US propaganda and are sick of being second class citizens in a country where Ukraine and Israel get priority.
lostrune2
Let's not forget that Tiktok itself is BANNED IN CHINA
u_s__reamer
The fate of TikTok will be decided by Chinese whispers and what's in it for Trump Inc.
itsonlyrocknroll
I am sceptical of the detrimental effects toxic elements surrounding "social media" has on society.
Thoughts such "media" in the hand of tyrant, despot, dictator governments is terrifying.
Vague ambiguous ownership structures, the methodology to/of how data will be managed, stored, accessed concerns all, or should do, is vital when levels of trust privacy impacts on a countries national security.
Tik Tok boards has refused on many times to answer straight forward questions when pressed from Congressional committees, one area is political oversight.
Tokyo Guy
Social media platforms come and go. Whatever eventually transpires with Tiktok, some new hotshot app will turn up, steal the limelight, and then either go on to grab market share or crash and burn.
I do think it's weird that they go after this app in particular, when there seems a general consensus that our devices are basically listening to us 24/7/365 in order to try and sell yet more tat.
quercetum
The ancient Chinese secret sauce of Tik Tok is their algorhythm. They know what people like and what lures them. I don't get any dance videos but Chinese cooking recipes and California Wildfire blame game content.
You are what you look at.
Pukey2
lostrune:
Douyin is available in China. If they REALLY wanted to use Tik Tok, they can use VPN - it's not illegal in China.
And for the laymen out there, FB and Google were NEVER banned in China. They were told to abide by the rules in China, ie data stays in China, just like how US data stays in US. They refused, so they left on their own accord. Funny how FB and Google refuse to abide by local rules in China and yet Tik Tok has abided by all the rules in US.
ian
Can't bring home the harvest?
Seems data is more important than profits this time
garypen
On the bright side, fewer vertically-oriented videos. So...silver lining.
John-San
I bet all you USAmerican have nothing but made in china from your iPhones to the tires on your call back fords from the paint on your roads and to your fire rating front doors. L.A. will be using nothing but made in China to rebuild. because you have no manufacture to cope with the demand. You not the USA of the 70;s Reagan sold you all out with his trickle down effect when Company receive huge tax breaks and instead of passing on the profit to the worker they close plants and more them to China. You allow your Politicians to have it all over you because Fox told you so. You done all you this to yourself. Not China, China only helped. Now you are all in complete denial.
ClippetyClop
Lol, good point. Portrait mode is such a poor substitute for landscape, and I hope Trump insists that Tiktok force all users to make their videos in grown up mode as part of any deal to bring it back.
isabelle
Utterly disingenuous. The rules are hardly just "data stays in China."
For a start, companies have to enforce CCP censorship too, which some are not willing to do. Some are... until users and staff begin to protest/leave, as happened with Google's Project Dragonfly to name but one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(search_engine)
It hasn't abided by the 2024 "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act," requiring such applications to divest from foreign ownership. Hence, the ban.
GBR48
If your government ban your online services, hate them for it, and take any opportunity you can to take your revenge, moments which will feel good. Highlight their failures, their corruption and their hypocrisy every chance you get. And always vote against those who screwed you over.
lostrune2
Douyin is not Tiktok. Douyin has its shoulders always looked over by the CCP. Tiktok doesn't have that - that's why it's banned in China
No, that's not the reason why Google left China - it's because China being the source of persistent cyberattacks intended to break into Google’s servers and access private data, specifically targeting personal details of Chinese human rights activists using Google’s services. While Google did not directly accuse the Chinese government, the implication was clear: it was in the interest of the Chinese government to uncover the identity of dissidents, and some hackers in China breached Google’s security architecture.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/12/19/138307/how-google-took-on-china-and-lost/
Fos
What a terrible society US has a become: a new witch-hunt against freedom of expression and and a revised Mccarthyism before the start of the mandate for Trump. Great mix for total disaster. And well deserved!
smithinjapan
Not to worry -- especially Maga -- you can still get pro-Trump news at most stations and apps, and once China pays off Trump he'll allow Tic Tok back again.
USNinJapan2
Oh what are all those poor influencers going to do now? McDonald's isn't even an option after automation. If you feel like your life is over because TikTok is gone, I'd say you need to take a long hard look in the mirror.
deanzaZZR
Hilarious. The USA has now joined Iran, India and Russia in banning TikTok.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok#/media/File:TikTokEligibleSignupCountries.png
TaiwanIsNotChina
Blocking the website is a whole other level of censorship found only in the likes of China. I just went to the Tik Tok website just fine. No vpn.
TaiwanIsNotChina
So I just realized: young people made this a problem themselves by being incapable of using anything but their smartphones. Maybe they should use these tik tok free days to find their first laptop/desktop.
TaiwanIsNotChina
And fewer leakings of Tik Tok crack ads onto other media.
TaiwanIsNotChina
The US has to be worried about maintaining a national defense unlike some others. Also you need to add China to your list. A substitute is not the same thing.
Peter Neil
and now tiktok is coming back online in the u.s.
its not about security or money anymore. trump’s ego supersedes everything, so he wants it up to broadcast his coronation, uh, inauguration.
he gets too much coverage on tiktok, so it can’t be bad.
i trust musk has something to do with it. he wants to buy it so he has another platform to spread his crap around.
Hercolobus
Hopefully Trump will restore this extortion act.
Tokyo Guy
Hilarious. The USA has now joined Iran, India and Russia in banning TikTok.
Birds of an ideological feather...
Garthgoyle
GBR48
You've made a great point but your statement has two big problems.
One, people can't vote in China.
And two (this one is very important), your statement above would automatically land you in jail with a possible life sentence if you were to post this over Weibo or any other social media or place in China.
u_s__reamer
The second-worst potus has handed Trump another kudo on a gold plate as a parting gift.