TikTok tells U.S. users it will be 'temporarily unavailable' starting Sunday
'We're working to restore our service in the U.S. as soon as possible,' app says
TikTok told users in the United States late on Saturday it would be "temporarily unavailable" on Sunday when a law banning the app takes effect in the U.S.
Users logging on were met with a message that said the law would "force us to make our services temporarily unavailable. We're working to restore our service in the U.S. as soon as possible."
TikTok said on Friday that unless the Biden administration "immediately provides a definitive statement" with assurances that it won't enforce a ban, the platform will be "forced to go dark" on Jan. 19.
On Thursday, a U.S. official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal Biden administration thinking said President Joe Biden won't enforce a ban, leaving the fate of the social media app in the hands of president-elect Donald Trump.
Congress last year, in a law signed by Biden, required that TikTok's China-based parent company, ByteDance, divest the company by Jan. 19, a day before Trump's inauguration. The official said the outgoing administration was leaving the implementation of the law — and the potential enforcement of the ban — to Trump.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds if ByteDance does not sell TikTok, putting the popular short-video app on track to go dark.
The court's 9-0 decision throws the social media platform and its 170 million American users into limbo, and its fate in the hands of Trump, who has previously vowed to rescue TikTok after returning to the presidency on Monday.
With files from The Associated Press