TikTok abruptly shut itself down to U.S. users late Saturday night, minutes before a nationwide ban took effect—but President-elect Donald Trump said hours earlier he will “most likely” allow TikTok to return when he takes office Monday by extending a deadline for China-based owner ByteDance to sell the app.
On January 19, 2025, a nationwide ban on TikTok took effect, formally barring internet service providers and app stores from offering the ultra-popular social media platform.
On January 18, 2025 TikTok shut itself down in the United States at some point before 11 p.m. EST, greeting American users with a message that said “you can’t use TikTok for now” due to a “law banning TikTok” set to take effect Sunday—but the platform noted Trump “has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.”
On January 17, 2025 TikTok said in a statement its service will “be forced to go dark” on Jan. 19 unless the Biden administration—which said earlier on Friday TikTok “should remain available to Americans” if “under American ownership”—guarantees Apple, Google and other service providers won’t be punished by supporting the app.
January 17, 2025, The Supreme Court ruled the law does not violate the First Amendment rights of the app and its users, upholding the federal government’s national security argument and leaving TikTok open to a ban on Jan. 19 unless it is sold to an American company.
The Biden administration has made clear they will not enforce the law – so another option would be for Trump to follow suit and allow the law to stand but tell the Department of Justice (DoJ) to ignore it.
The government would be effectively telling Apple and Google that they won’t be punished for continuing to allow people to download TikTok onto their devices, meaning the law would remain in place but would essentially be redundant.
Obviously, the firms might be uncomfortable about breaking the law even if they’ve been told it’s fine – as it would be effectively requiring them to take the president’s word for it that they won’t face punishment.
