On Saturday evening, ByteDance, a Chinese company, which owns the short video application TikTok, was disabled in the United States. Both Apple and Google have removed TikTok from their app stores to comply with the U.S. law. The law requires ByteDance to separate from TikTok by January 19th, otherwise TikTok will face an effective ban in the United States.
The removal of TikTok from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store means that new users can no longer download this short video application.
In 2024, the U.S. Congress passed the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Controlled Apps Act,” requiring ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, to separate from TikTok before January 19, 2025, or else the app will face a ban in the U.S. President Biden signed the bill into law shortly after.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court justices unanimously decided to uphold the law, maintaining the ban on TikTok.
On Saturday night, a message appeared on the installation page of the TikTok app in the Apple App Store stating, “The application is not available.”
“Sorry, the application is currently not available in your country or region,” the message read.
“`Sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server,” a message from the previously hosted TikTok page on the Google Play Store showed.
According to The Information, the leadership of Oracle, the main cloud computing provider for TikTok’s U.S. operations, has informed some employees to prepare to shut down the servers hosting U.S. TikTok data as early as 9 p.m. EST on Saturday to comply with the impending ban starting from Sunday.
Some users who visited TikTok’s app and website last night received a notification stating, “Sorry, TikTok is currently not available.”
“The U.S. has passed a law banning TikTok. Unfortunately, this means you cannot use TikTok right now,” the notification said.
The notification from TikTok also stated that President Trump indicated finding a solution to restore TikTok after taking office.
TikTok stated on Friday that unless the Biden administration intervenes, the service will cease.
If ByteDance fails to complete a “qualified separation” of TikTok by this Sunday, service providers are required by law to no longer support TikTok within the U.S. This may lead to severe penalties for Apple, Google, and Oracle for non-compliance. Apple and Google distributed the TikTok app through their respective app stores, while Oracle provided cloud computing services for TikTok.
If these companies do not comply with the legal requirements, the U.S. Department of Justice has the authority to fine them $5,000 per user. Given that TikTok has around 170 million active users in the U.S., the fine could reach up to $850 billion, enough to ensure all relevant companies strictly adhere to the law.
It is important to note that the U.S. law does not require TikTok to shut down completely, only restricting its availability for download on the Apple and Google app stores, allowing existing users to continue using the app but without the ability to update it.
The White House previously stated that for national security reasons, they wish to see ByteDance terminate ownership of TikTok but will not completely ban the app.
U.S. officials have warned that TikTok’s management is influenced by the Chinese Communist government, which may compel the company to share U.S. user data and use it for distributing Communist propaganda.
President Trump mentioned during a phone interview with NBC on Saturday that he is “very likely” to give TikTok more time and may “likely announce this news on Monday,” which coincides with his second term inauguration.
Bloomberg’s analysis suggests that selling TikTok poses several challenges; ByteDance has indicated reluctance to sell its U.S. business, and finding a buyer is difficult due to the high market valuation—it’s rare for a company or individual to come up with at least $50 billion to acquire TikTok.