TikTok, as well as its affiliate apps — Lemon8 and CapCut — shut down on Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m. PST, four and a half hours before the court-mandated ban that was to take place on Jan. 19.
The app’s interface displayed a textbox, stating:
“Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now
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 app was pulled from both the Apple App Store and the Google Play store immediately after.
TikTok issued a statement on Jan. 17, explaining to users as to why the app was not available:
“The statements issued (on Jan. 17) by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to … TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans.
Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark (following Jan. 19).”
Following the Supreme Court’s 9-0 decision to uphold the bipartisan law requiring foreign apps to divest to American purchasers, users of TikTok flocked to other social media apps for reassurance.
Following the application’s shutdown, an X (formerly known as Twitter) user stated, “RedNote it is, I guess.” RedNote, or XiaoHongShu in China, is a social media platform similar to Meta’s Instagram, except the company is headquartered in China.
The app went live again on Jan. 19 at 7:30 a.m. PST, just 14 hours after the initial ban; though the app remains unreachable through the Apple App Store and the Google Play store.
The interface provided a brief message thanking Donald Trump for his work in helping save the app from being banned in the United States:
“Welcome back! Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!
You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok.”
Tech support for the App Store have stated that they are waiting on Congress’s intent to halt the enumerated punishments prescribed to companies who house the app during the ban.
Students expressed various levels of distrust about the ban. “It’s honestly pretty sketchy, what they’re doing,” Lilly Wong, 19, engineering major, said.
“I was just sad that my saved videos would be gone … I’m glad it’s back, but (the For You Page) seems different,” Winfred Wei, 18, computer science major, said, when asked about the TikTok reinstatement.
Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20, prolonging the grace period for TikTok to 75 days. The order grants immunity to technological firms housing the app and consequently, the other apps owned by parent company ByteDance.
Though the TikTok ban has been repealed in some sense, there has been a major consequential effect on the platform and its users. Certain lawmakers are suspicious of Trump’s capability to repeal the TikTok ban, service providers are anxious with regards to their punishments and users have expressed a blanket of doubt and dread about the future of the app.
