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The US government has officially banned a major global social media platform for the first time in internet history, joining the ranks of authoritarian regimes like Russia and China. TikTok officially went dark on Saturday. Users attempting to access the app are now greeted with the message “TikTok is currently unavailable.”
“We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to restore TikTok once he takes office,” the message added. “Please follow us!”
This is the final result of the legislative Congress passed last year That would require TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to either sell the app’s American operations or face a nationwide ban. But unlike countries that routinely engage in internet censorship, the US has no centralized infrastructure to prevent Americans from accessing specific apps or websites.
Instead, the law pressures Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores or face millions of dollars in fines. Both companies have removed TikTok and other apps owned by parent company ByteDance since Saturday. Google and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The law also prohibits companies from providing data hosting services to TikTok. Oracle, which counts TikTok as one of its biggest cloud computing customers, has been reported started talking to his employees According to The Information, shutting down the US servers that store TikTok data on Saturday. Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In May, TikTok and a group of US creators filed to block the law, saying it violated the First Amendment. Supreme Court was rejected Those arguments came in a unanimous decision on Jan. 17, which concluded that the provision was motivated by “well-supported national security concerns.”
“This is a clear violation of the First Amendment,” says Evelyn Dueck, a professor at Stanford Law School who specializes in online speech issues. “Unfortunately for me, all nine Supreme Court justices disagree, and almost everyone will listen to their opinion on me. With past and future presidents, as well as members of Congress, pushing back on whether an immediate shutdown is necessary in recent days, it’s hard to take the national security justification seriously.
Days before the deadline, President Biden announced that he would leave implementation to the incoming Trump administration. The move left the app’s fate in limbo, and TikTok on Saturday urged the Biden administration to give firm assurances that it would not enforce the law. In response, Biden’s team suggested that TikTok take its concerns to Trump.
On Blind, an anonymous messaging app popular among tech workers, some TikTok employees were talking about whether they would have jobs next month, while others went about business as usual. “Anyone else’s manager is still scheduling meetings next week about new, upcoming projects with no holds barred?” one user wrote. “I have a 2025 strategy meeting next week,” another user replied. “I’m just doing what I’m told. This is comforting in a way.”
