TikTok went offline for all U.S. users on Saturday night, hours before a ban signed into law by President Joe Biden was due to take effect.
If any of the approximately 170 million American users opened the app after it went dark, they were greeted with a hopeful message about the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
"Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now," the message read. "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!"
Trump has vacillated between calling for the app to be banned and pitching himself as the protector of the short-form video platform. When TikTok parent company ByteDance unsuccessfully challenged the law before the Supreme Court, Trump asked the court to grant a stay of the ban so that his administration could consider whether or not to implement it.
On Saturday, the president-elect said on his Truth Social platform that "everyone must respect" the Court's decision to allow the ban to move forward, adding that he needed "time to review the situation." While speaking to NBC's Kristen Welker that same day, he floated the idea of a 90-day reprieve.
Early on Sunday morning, Trump posted a much simpler, all-caps message.
"SAVE TIKTOK," he shared to Truth Social.
Beyond the message it shared on Saturday night, TikTok's leadership seems optimistic that Trump will allow them to continue operations in the U.S. CEO Shou Zi Chew shared a video to the platform on Friday, thanking Trump for "his commitment to work with us."
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