TikTok Goes Dark In The US

Due to a prohibition set by the US government on TikTok that goes into effect on January 19, 2025, the well-known video-sharing social network has officially gone black in the US.

It stopped working and went dark in the U.S. on Saturday night, just before the federal ban on the Chinese-owned short-video app was set to take effect.

Due to the restriction, current users can no longer view TikTok content, and new users cannot download the app from the official iOS and Android app stores since these stores no longer carry the app.

On Saturday night, users who opened the TikTok app saw a pop-up that said, “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,” which prevented them from scrolling through videos.

Additionally, other apps from TikTok’s parent firm ByteDance, such as Gauth, Lemon8, and CapCut, are no longer available.

The move follows days after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld a law mandating that ByteDance sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or cause it to be blocked in the nation.

The Congress said the reasons were for national security and concerns that Chinese authorities could manipulate its recommendation algorithm.

ByteDance went with the latter, saying divestment “is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally,” according to TikTok, and it stuck to that stance all the way through.

Going Forward

The decision to take the app down has been developing for five years. In mid-2020, Donald Trump attempted, but failed, to impose an executive order banning TikTok.

Amongst every bill several members of Congress presented to accomplish the same thing, only one of the bills was approved.

TikTok was forced to be sold or prohibited after the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) was passed into law, with the US Supreme Court declaring that the law was constitutional and that its provisions should remain in effect.

This was two days before ByteDance’s deadline to sell the well-known program, which is used by 170 million Americans.

Biden stated that he would let Trump handle the bill’s implementation. TikTok “should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership,” the White House said in a statement on Friday.

Despite being the first one to attempt a ban, Trump attempted to get involved in TikTok’s Supreme Court lawsuit at the last minute after discovering a large number of supporters on the app.

The fate of TikTok in the U.S. now lies in the hands of Trump as he takes office on Monday.

Although he stated that the Supreme Court’s ruling should be “respected,” he may direct the Justice Department not to enforce the bill.