In addition to the in-app shutdown notice, TikTok is no longer available to download from the Google Play Store.

The British No 1 faces a stiff task as Alcaraz looks to continue his chase for a career grand slam before Djokovic is in action later

TIkTok's 170 million users started receiving a "services temporarily unavailable" notice late Saturday night and the app was no longer available in Google and Apple's app stores as a law to ban the app was set to take official effect at midnight.

Why it matters: It's the first time the U.S. has banned a major online platform of this scale.

Between the lines: In declining to enforce the ban during his last day in office, President Biden essentially shifted the responsibility for enforcing the law to incoming President Trump.

• Trump has indicated that he will try to keep TikTok alive in the U.S., but facing hefty fines, Google and Apple likely chose not to take the risk of violating the law.

What they're saying: Apple has not commented on their plans. Google declined to comment.

Catch up quick: For app store operators and cloud-services vendors like Oracle, which runs the backend for TikTok in the U.S., the ban story has proven complicated.

• Although the Supreme Court upheld the ban Friday, lawmakers have been split on whether they should try to find a way to extend the ban's deadline or keep TikTok shut out of the U.S. unless it found a U.S. buyer.

What to watch: Trump could decide to extend the deadline by 90 days, but he would have to show that legally binding negotiations for a sale of TikTok to U.S. owners are underway.

• There are U.S. players who are interested in buying TikTok, but any deal to acquire the app would also face the hurdle of winning China's approval.
• Trump could also issue an executive order or ask his attorney general not to enforce the law.

The move comes a day after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law barring it for U.S. users

The switch has flipped on the US TikTok ban. TikTok's app stoped working and was removed from the App Store and Google Play on Saturday night, just hours before the January 19, ban was expected to take effect.

People who have previously installed the app are instead greeted with a pop-up. "Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now," it says. "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 notice gives the option to close the app or "learn more," which directs to a page on TikTok's website with similar language. Existing users can also download their data from the website. 

Following the passage of the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Apps Act" by President Biden, TikTok had six months to divest itself from Chinese parent company ByteDance. The company opted to fight the law, bringing a case to the Supreme Court that its First Amendment rights were violated by the measure. The Supreme Court was not swayed.

As part of the ban, Apple's App Store, Google's Play Store and any other app marketplace must remove TikTok or be subject to a fine of $5,000 for every user in the US that downloads the app. White House officials said earlier in the week that the ban would not be enforced during President Joe Biden's final hours in office, but TikTok said that the government had "failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok's availability to over 170 million Americans."

Multiple attempts have been made to ban TikTok in the US over concerns of spying, but this is the first time one has stuck, at least temporarily. President-elect Donald Trump was a major supporter of a ban during his first term in office and, ironically, isTikTok's only hope of surviving after his second inauguration. Earlier on Saturday, Trump told NBC News that he would "most likely" grant a 90-day extension to the company after taking office.

Should an extension come, it's not clear what kind of arrangement the company may work out to remain in the US after all. Perplexity AI has reportedly submitted a bid to merge with TikTok U.S, CNBC reported. Others, including investor Kevin O'Leary (of Shark Tank fame) have also made proposals or expressed interest in buying the service. 

Additional reporting by Karissa Bell.

• TikTok has turned off its app for US users.
• The move comes after the company lost a legal challenge to a divest-or-ban law in the Supreme Court.
• The shutdown may not last forever, as TikTok hopes President-elect Donald Trump will step in.

TikTok shut down its app for its US users on Saturday, shortly before the January 19 deadline ordering the app to go dark.

The stoppage came after the company waged a monthslong legal battle against a law that required its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest from its US app or effectively cease operating in the country.

"Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now," a message popped up on the screen starting around 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time. "A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. 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 final blow for TikTok came on Friday when the Supreme Court ruled against the company's legal challenge. President Joe Biden's administration signaled on Friday that it would not enforce the ban. A spokesperson said that given the "sheer fact of timing, this administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday."

Still, a TikTok spokesperson said the same day it would need to go dark unless the Biden administration stepped in and offered assurances to its "most critical service providers" that the law would not be enforced.

The White House said Saturday that TikTok's threat to go dark was a "stunt."

While TikTok has shut its doors to its 170 million US users, the app will continue to operate elsewhere. The company said in 2021 that it had over 1 billion users globally.

Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, the app's creators and users took to TikTok to mourn the loss and reflect on the end of an era.

"Losing the majority of my audience is a difficult reality to face, and while I'm doing everything I can to prepare, it's hard not to feel like I'm starting over," Sofia Bella, a TikTok creator with 4.8 million followers, told Business Insider.

TikTok's creators and business partners have had weeks to contemplate the prospect of a January 19 app shutdown. Many have crafted plans for transitioning off TikTok if the app disappeared forever, beginning with downloading all their videos.

Some influencer marketers put contingency plans in place to assure brands that creators would post sponsored content on other apps like Instagram if TikTok goes dark. TikTok Shop merchants and their partners began easing off the app in recent days, with some halting US warehouse shipments or pausing distributing free samples to TikTok creators. And marketers put together plans to shift spend to other platforms like Facebook, Instagram reels, and YouTube shorts.

Yet, even as users have spent days memorializing the app, posting nostalgic video round-ups, and begging fans to follow them on other platforms, it seems possible that TikTok could rise again.

While TikTok lost all of its legal challenges to the divest-or-ban law, it's now hoping that President-elect Donald Trump can find a political solution to keep its app around.

Trump told NBC on Saturday that he would "most likely" grant TikTok a 90-day extension to find a non-Chinese buyer for the platform.

"I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it's appropriate. You know, it's appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It's a very big situation," Trump said, according to the outlet.

"If I decide to do that, I'll probably announce it on Monday," he added.

TikTok's CEO Shou Chew thanked the incoming president in a video on Friday for the "opportunity to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States."

Trump's options to rescue TikTok from the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act are limited, legal experts previously told Business Insider. The simplest option may be to help try to split off TikTok's US entity from the rest of the world, something TikTok's lawyer, Noel Francisco, told the Supreme Court would be "extraordinarily difficult" over any timeline.

Trump wrote in a social media post on Friday that he would make a decision on the app soon after reviewing the situation.

TikTok has gone dark in the U.S., the result of a federal law that bans the popular short-form video app for millions of Americans — at least for now. TikTok users began receiving a message about the ban around 10:30 p.m. Eastern. As of Saturday evening, the app was also no longer available in the […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.