The incoming president, Donald Trump, had earlier in the day
said he would most likely give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban after he
takes office on Monday.
TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, told users attempting to
use the app around 10:45 p.m. ET (0345 GMT): “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.”
It was gathered that 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.
Trump said that the 90-day extension is something that will
be most likely done, because it’s appropriate, adding that if he decides to do
that, then he would announce it on Monday.
It was not clear if any U.S. user 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.
Recall that TikTok warned on Friday that it
would go dark in the U.S. on Sunday unless President Joe Biden’s administration
provides assurances to companies such as Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab and
Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab that they will not face enforcement actions
when a ban takes effect.
Under a law passed last year and upheld on Friday by a
unanimous Supreme Court, the platform has until Sunday to cut ties with its
China-based parent ByteDance or shut down its U.S. operation to resolve
concerns it poses a threat to national security