NEW YORK (AP) — TikTok’s app was removed from prominent app stores on Saturday, just before a federal law banning the popular social media platform was scheduled to go into effect.
By 10:50 p.m. ET, the app was not found in Apple or Google’s app stores. Both companies are barred from providing the platform under a law that requires TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to sell the platform or face a U.S. ban. .
When users opened the TikTok app on Saturday night, they saw a pop-up message from the company that prevented them from scrolling through videos.
The message read, “A law has been enacted in the United States to ban TikTok.” “Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
“We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated he is willing to work with us on a solution to bring TikTok back after he takes office,” the message said. “stay tuned!”
The announcement came before the company sent a separate message to users saying the service would be “temporarily unavailable” and that it was working to restore service in the U.S. “as soon as possible.” .
A federal law signed by President Joe Biden last year requires ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok’s U.S. platform or face a ban. ByteDance had nine months to sell its U.S. operations to an approved buyer. The company and TikTok opted to litigate the law, but ultimately lost the fight in the Supreme Court on Friday.
Under the law, mobile app stores are prohibited from offering TikTok, and internet hosting services are prohibited from offering the service to American users.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the Biden administration will leave enforcement of the ban to President-elect Donald Trump, given that the day after the ban goes into effect is the presidential inauguration. said.
But TikTok said after Friday’s court ruling that it would “cease operations” unless the administration issues a “final statement” on companies providing services in the United States.
But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok’s request a “stunt” and said there was no reason for TikTok or any other company to “take action in the days leading up to the Trump administration.”
In an interview with NBC News on Saturday, President-elect Donald Trump said he was considering extending TikTok’s continued operation for 90 days.
Federal law allows a sitting president to extend the deadline by 90 days if a sale is in progress. But no clear buyer has emerged, and ByteDance has previously said it would not sell TikTok.
If such an extension were to happen, President Trump said it would “probably” be announced on Monday.
On Saturday, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance to form a new entity that would combine the U.S. operations of Perplexity and TikTok, according to people familiar with the matter. If successful, the new structure would include other investors and allow existing ByteDance shareholders to keep their stakes in the company, the people said.
Perplexity isn’t asking you to buy the ByteDance algorithm that feeds videos based on TikTok users’ interests and made the platform such a phenomenon.
Other investors are also keeping an eye on TikTok. “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary recently announced that a consortium of investors put together by him and billionaire Frank McCourt will provide $20 billion in cash to ByteDance. President Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also said last year that he was forming a group of investors to buy TikTok.
Source link