NEW YORK (AP) Just before a government regulation that would have outlawed the well-known social media site was set to take effect, the TikTok app was taken down from major app stores on Saturday.
In accordance with a regulation that compelled TikTok’s parent firm, ByteDance, located in China, to sell the platform or risk a U.S. ban, the app was not available in the app stores of Apple and Google by 10:50 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
On Saturday night, users were unable to browse through videos on the TikTok app due to a pop-up notification from the firm.
According to the message, a law prohibiting TikTok has been passed in the United States. Regretfully, this means that TikTok is currently unavailable to you.
The message stated, “We are lucky that President Trump has stated that he will collaborate with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.” Stay tuned, please!
Prior to that notification, the business had informed consumers in another message that its service will be momentarily unavailable and that it was trying to get its U.S. service back up and running as quickly as possible.
Last year, President Joe Biden signed a federal regulation requiring ByteDance to sell out its interest in the TikTok U.S. platform or risk being banned. ByteDance has nine months to find an authorized buyer for the U.S. business. The business and TikTok decided to challenge the law in court, but they lost their battle on Friday at the Supreme Court.
The law forbids internet hosting companies from providing TikTok to American users and prohibits mobile app shops from carrying the application.
Given that President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration is the day after the ban goes into effect, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco had previously stated that the Biden administration will let Trump handle the law’s implementation.
However, TikTok stated following the court decision on Friday that it would have to shut down if the administration didn’t give a clear message to the businesses that provide its service in the United States.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, however, referred to TikTok’s demand as a ploy and stated that there was no justification for TikTok or other businesses to act in the days leading up to the inauguration of the Trump administration.
President-elect Donald Trump stated in an interview with NBC News on Saturday that he was considering granting TikTok a 90-day extension to enable them to stay in business.
According to federal law, if a transaction is underway, the current president may extend the deadline by ninety days. However, no obvious purchasers have surfaced, and ByteDance has already stated that it will not be selling TikTok.
Trump stated that an announcement of such an extension would most likely be made on Monday.
According to a person familiar with the situation, Perplexity AI, an artificial intelligence startup, filed a proposal to ByteDance on Saturday to establish a new company that would combine Perplexity with the TikTok U.S. business. According to the source, if the new arrangement is successful, ByteDance’s current shareholders would be able to keep their ownership part in the business while also attracting new investors.
Not requesting to buy the ByteDance algorithm, which feeds TikTok users’ videos according to their interests and has made the platform so popular, is confusing.
TikTok has also caught the attention of other investors. Kevin O. Leary, star of Shark Tank, reportedly claimed that ByteDance received a $20 billion cash offer from a group of investors he and billionaire Frank McCourt assembled. Last year, Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also announced that he was assembling a group of investors to purchase TikTok.
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By Associated Press’s HALELUYA HADERO
