TikTok goes dark for US users, while Trump signals he will save it

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The closure of the app disrupted millions of American businesses and social-media entrepreneurs. TikTok started going dark for 170 million American users in an unprecedented display of the U.S.-China divide over technology and national security.

The app started to halt service Saturday night, as a law was about to take effect requiring it to shed its Chinese ownership or close in the U.S. It marked the first time the U.S. government has compelled the closure of such a widely used app, and disrupted millions of American businesses and social-media entrepreneurs who use TikTok to connect with customers and fans.

TikTok’s disappearance could be brief, however. President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday said he would likely give TikTok a 90-day extension from the potential ban after he takes office Monday. TikTok Chief Executive Shou Chew is scheduled to attend Trump’s inauguration, along with U.S.

tech luminaries including Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta Platforms owns TikTok rival Instagram. Trump’s comments were the latest in a flurry of last-minute statements that capped a yearslong saga complicated by U.S. presidential politics, conflicting geopolitical interests and the ambiguities surrounding enforcement of the law, which outlines hefty penalties for noncompliance.

Before positioning himself as TikTok’s potential savior, Trump tried to ban TikTok in his first term. President Biden, who signed the bipartisan law last April, ended his term with aides saying he wouldn’t enforce it on his final day in office. TikTok and parent ByteDance have portrayed themselves as independent of China, but their ability to do any divestiture deal to satisfy the U.S.