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

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

“Sorry, TikTok isn’t obtainable proper now,” the message within the app reads when customers open it. “A legislation banning TikTok has been enacted within the U.S. Sadly, which means you possibly can’t use TikTok for now. We’re lucky that President Trump has indicated that he’ll work with us on an answer to reinstate TikTok as soon as he takes workplace. Please keep tuned!”

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

On Friday, TikTok stated it will be “compelled to go darkish” on Jan. 19 except it obtained a “definitive assertion” from the outgoing Biden administration that the app’s tech companions received’t be penalized below the legislation, which bans the app within the U.S. as of Sunday except China-based guardian ByteDance divests its stake within the app to a celebration that’s not situated in a rustic deemed a “international adversary.”

President-elect Donald Trump, in an interview Saturday with NBC Information, stated he “almost definitely” would concern a 90-day extension to the Jan. 19 deadline. But it surely isn’t clear he has the authorized authority to do this: The legislation specifies that to set off a 90-day extension to the Jan. 19 date, the U.S. president should certify to Congress that “related binding authorized agreements” are in place for ByteDance to enact a divestment of its TikTok possession. There aren’t any identified such agreements in place, regardless that a number of unsolicited affords for TikTok have been floated in latest weeks.

The outgoing Biden administration had beforehand stated it was punting the query of imposing the TikTok divest-or-ban legislation to Trump. On Saturday, relating to TikTok’s warning that it will go darkish due to the upcoming ban, a White Home rep known as the blackout risk was a “stunt.”

“We’ve got seen the newest assertion from TikTok. It’s a stunt,” White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated. “We’ve got laid out our place clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this legislation will fall to the following administration. So TikTok and different corporations ought to take up any issues with them.”

The difficulty of TikTok’s shutdown got here to a head after the Supreme Court docket rejected the enchantment by TikTok and guardian ByteDance to halt the legislation.

Final yr, the TikTok divest-or-ban laws handed with sturdy bipartisan help, clearing the Home of Representatives by a 360-58 vote and the Senate by 79-18. President Biden signed it into legislation on April 24.

U.S. lawmakers on either side of the aisle have argued that TikTok is a nationwide safety risk, on the idea that China’s communist regime may demand entry to information on U.S. customers or pressure TikTok to advertise Chinese language propaganda. TikTok has repeatedly claimed the Chinese language authorities has by no means made such calls for (and that TikTok wouldn’t adjust to them in the event that they had been made) and says 60% of ByteDance’s possession is represented by international funding companies.