Why Did TikTok Move Darkish? US Legislation Bans App, Which Shuts Down for Customers

The TikTok, because it mentioned it might, close off the video app for U.S. customers at about 10:30 p.m. ET on Saturday night time. And at this time, it’s unclear how lengthy TikTok will keep down.

“Sorry, TikTok isn’t to be had at this time,” the message within the app reads when customers open it. “A regulation banning TikTok has been enacted within the U.S. Sadly, that implies you’ll be able to’t use TikTok for now. We’re lucky that President Trump has indicated that he’ll paintings with us on a strategy to reinstate TikTok as soon as he is taking workplace. Please keep tuned!”

The message features a hyperlink to TikTok’s web page, which repeats the similar textual content and informs customers they are able to nonetheless log in to their account to obtain their knowledge. Within the U.S., TikTok additionally disappeared from Apple’s App Retailer and the Google Play app retailer for Android on Saturday night time. CapCut, a video-editing app owned by way of ByteDance, additionally went offline for U.S. customers.

On Friday, TikTok mentioned it might be “compelled to head darkish” on Jan. 19 until it gained a “definitive remark” from the outgoing Biden management that the app’s tech companions gained’t be penalized below the regulation, which bans the app within the U.S. as of Sunday until China-based mum or dad ByteDance divests its stake within the app to a celebration that isn’t positioned in a rustic deemed a “overseas adversary.”

President-elect Donald Trump, in an interview Saturday with NBC Information, mentioned he “possibly” would factor a 90-day extension to the Jan. 19 time limit. Nevertheless it isn’t transparent he has the felony authority to do this: The regulation specifies that to cause a 90-day extension to the Jan. 19 date, the U.S. president will have to certify to Congress that “related binding felony agreements” are in position for ByteDance to enact a divestment of its TikTok possession. There aren’t any identified such agreements in position, although a number of unsolicited gives for TikTok were floated in fresh weeks.

The outgoing Biden management had up to now mentioned it was once punting the query of implementing the TikTok divest-or-ban regulation to Trump. On Saturday, referring to TikTok’s caution that it might pass darkish as a result of the approaching ban, a White Space rep known as the blackout risk was once a “stunt.”

“We’ve got observed the latest remark from TikTok. This can be a stunt,” White Space press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned. “We’ve got laid out our place obviously and straightforwardly: movements to put in force this regulation will fall to the following management. So TikTok and different firms must soak up any issues with them.”

The problem of TikTok’s shutdown got here to a head after the Perfect Court docket rejected the enchantment by way of TikTok and mum or dad ByteDance to halt the regulation.

Ultimate 12 months, the TikTok divest-or-ban regulation handed with sturdy bipartisan fortify, clearing the Space of Representatives by way of a 360-58 vote and the Senate by way of 79-18. President Biden signed it into regulation on April 24.

U.S. lawmakers on each side of the aisle have argued that TikTok is a countrywide safety risk, at the principle that China’s communist regime may just call for get entry to to knowledge on U.S. customers or power TikTok to advertise Chinese language propaganda. TikTok has again and again claimed the Chinese language executive hasn’t ever made such calls for (and that TikTok would now not agree to them in the event that they had been made) and says 60% of ByteDance’s possession is represented by way of international funding companies.