For the first time in the history of the Internet, the US government has officially banned a major global social media platform, joining the ranks of authoritarian regimes such as Russia and China. On Saturday, TikTok officially went shadowy. Users trying to access the app are now greeted with the message “TikTok is now unavailable.”
This is the final result of legislation passed by Congress last year that requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app in America or face a nationwide ban. However, unlike countries that regularly engage in Internet censorship, the United States does not have a centralized infrastructure that prevents Americans from accessing specific applications or websites.
Instead, the law puts pressure on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores or face multimillion-dollar financial penalties. As of Saturday, the two companies appear to have removed TikTok and other apps owned by ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. Google and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The law also prohibits companies from providing data hosting services on the TikTok platform. According to reports, Oracle, for which TikTok is one of the largest cloud computing clients he started telling the staff According to The Information, on Saturday it will close the servers storing data from the American website TikTok. Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In May, TikTok and a group of American creators called for a halt to the law’s entry into force, saying it violated the First Amendment. The Supreme Court rejected those arguments in a unanimous ruling on Jan. 17, saying the rule was motivated by “legitimate national security concerns.”
“This is a blatant violation of the First Amendment,” says Evelyn Douek, a professor at Stanford University who specializes in online speech. “Unfortunately for me, all nine Supreme Court justices disagree and almost everyone who matters will listen to their opinion, not mine. But it’s hard to take the national security justification seriously when in recent days former and future presidents, as well as members of Congress, seem to be backtracking on whether an immediate shutdown is necessary after all.
With just days until the deadline, President Biden has signaled he will leave enforcement to the incoming Trump administration. This move left the fate of the app in limbo. Two days before the deadline, TikTok called on the Biden administration to provide a final assurance that it would not enforce the law. In response, Biden’s team suggested that TikTok raise its concerns with Trump.
While some employees wondered whether they would have a job in February, others continued to work as usual. “Anyone else’s manager still scheduling meetings next week about new upcoming projects without acknowledging the ban at all?” – wrote a user on ByteDance-only Blind, an anonymous messaging app popular with tech workers. “I have 2025 strategy meetings next week,” another user replied. “I only do what they tell me to do. It’s comforting in a way.”
President-elect Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok during his first term, but later reversed his stance after amassing a large following on the platform. On Saturday, Trump said he would “probably” issue an executive order on Monday giving TikTok a 90-day extension of the ban. “I think it would certainly be an option we are considering,” he said interview from NBC News.