After amassing more than 170 million users in the country in less than seven years, TikTok has stopped working in the United States and disappeared from app stores.
TikTok stopped working in the United States late on Saturday and disappeared from Apple and Google app stores ahead of a law that takes effect on Sunday requiring the shutdown of the platform.
President-elect Donald Trump has said he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban after he takes office on Monday, a promise TikTok cited in a notice posted to users on the app.
“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,” the message notified users trying to use the app late on Saturday night.
The US is not the first major market for TikTok to cut off the video-sharing app. In 2020, India issued a complete ban of the app that cut off around 200 million users. The Indian government cited privacy issues with the app, claiming that alleged ties between ByteDance and the Chinese government posed a threat to India’s sovereignty and security.
Other countries and areas, including the European Union, have put partial bans in place, which prevent government workers and military personnel from installing the app on their devices.
Various federal and state TikTok bans are already in place in the US, with lawmakers citing national security concerns. These fears have done little to stem TikTok’s growth in the US. The app has proved to be one of the most popular both in America and globally last year with 52 million downloads in the US and 733 million worldwide – despite more than 3 billion people around the world being blocked from downloading it.
This has helped bring the total number of TikTok users around the world to above 2 billion, with only India’s ban nearly three years ago slightly slowing its growth – and only temporarily.
A survey poll from the Pew Research Center last year found TikTok to be the fastest-growing platform in the US, as users beyond the social media app’s typically young demographic began to adopt it.
US adults who have TikTok accounts are increasingly using the app as a source of news, with roughly a third of people aged 18-29 regularly using it to consume news in 2023.
The FBI claims that Chinese state ties to parent company ByteDance could allow the app to “manipulate content” in order to spread harmful propaganda.
Fears around national security have been countered with questions about censorship, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation describing the prospect of a ban as a “seed of genuine security concern wrapped in a thick layer of censorship”.
The US digital liberties group has called on people to “resist a governmental power to ban a popular means of communication and expression”.
In its filing with the Supreme Court on Monday, TikTok alleged that banning the app would “shutter” one of the most popular speech platforms at a highly political moment.
