TikTok says it will be shut down in the US after failing to avoid a ban

TikTok has officially gone dark in the US now that a federal ban on the app took effect on January 19. Around 9pm ET, the app began notifying people in the US with a message that the ban would “make our services temporarily unavailable.”

The letter goes on to say that TikTok is “working to restore our service in the US as quickly as possible” — an outcome that will require action from the incoming Trump administration one way or another. A similar message appears in video editor CapCut, which is also owned by TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance.

Inside TikTok, internal memo View it Edge He calls the news “disappointing” but tells employees that “President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to bring TikTok back once he takes office” on the 20th, and “teams are working tirelessly to bring our app back to market.” United States as quickly as possible.”Shortly after the memo was shared with employees, both TikTok and Capcut The same line about Trump started appearing to users.

Tik Tok Warned on Friday He will have to go dark if the Biden administration does not promise to delay enforcement of the law’s penalties on TikTok providers, such as Apple and Google, which could be fined thousands of dollars per US user once the ban goes into effect. In response, the Biden administration said it had already passed its implementation responsibilities To the Trump administration He called TikTok’s threat offline “trick”.

Trump – who Tired of being banned on TikTok Five years ago – he indicated he planned to extend the ban deadline by 90 days through executive order once he was sworn in on January 20. It’s not clear whether he would use the provision in the law that allows for delays if a sale is pending, or if he would have that option once the ban goes into effect. TikTok users are definitely upsetOf course, though none of them seem to be pressuring the company to sell as much as they are pressuring politicians of both parties to repeal the ban.

January 18 update: Note that shutdowns of TikTok and CapCut have begun in the US.