Summary
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TikTok stopped working in the US on Saturday, January 18.
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This is due to the TikTok ban that was recently upheld by the Supreme Court.
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President Trump has indicated he may try to bring back the app, but no return date has been announced.
The hugely successful social media/video app TikTok will no longer work in the US as of 10:00 PM CST on Saturday, January 18th. TikTok, the successor to Musical.ly, exploded in popularity during the pandemic and quickly became one of the world's most used apps. Hundreds of millions of individuals use TikTok daily, but unfortunately for its fans, the app has been a political target for years now.
TikTok was developed by the Chinese company ByteDance, which has been accused by some politicians of collecting user data for the Chinese government. TikTok itself has vehemently denied these allegations, but that hasn't stopped the case against it from going all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court reached a unanimous decision that the proposed TikTok ban could go ahead. President Biden indicated his administration would not enforce the ban, and President-elect Trump has suggested he may do something to keep the app online. Despite this, TikTok is no longer available in the US as of this writing.
Family
Pokemon says goodbye to TikTok in the most heartbreaking way possible
An official Pokemon TikTok account is saying goodbye to its fans in the US as the nationwide ban on the social media app reaches its deadline.
TikTok stopped working at approximately 10:00 PM CST on Saturday, January 18th. The TikTok ban in the US has rendered the app unusable, meaning users can no longer browse their For Your Page, access their saved videos, or chat with their friends. When trying to use TikTok right now in the US, users are greeted with a message that says, “Sorry, TikTok is not available right now. A law banning TikTok has been passed in the US Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now We have fortunately, President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok when he takes office.
Is TikTok down right now?
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TikTok will no longer work in the US as of January 18th.
Before TikTok was banned, one proposed solution was for ByteDance to sell the app to an American company. That hasn't happened, so it's unclear what resolution will be reached to reinstate the app, assuming Trump tries to do so. Meanwhile, angry TikTok users have found their own ways to protest the ban. There have been personal protests, but users have also started downloading Rednote en masse. Rednote, for the uninitiated, is very similar to TikTok, but it targets users in China directly.
Sorry, TikTok is not available right now. A law banning TikTok has been passed in the U.S. Unfortunately, this means you can't use TikTok at the moment. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok when he takes office. Stay tuned!
Whether or not Trump can bring back TikTok remains to be seen, but it will definitely be interesting to see what happens in the coming days. In the meantime, MrBeast has teased that he's had talks with billionaires about the possibility of buying TikTok himself, but it's hard to say if anything like that will actually happen. Currently, TikTok users in the US cannot use the app, and no return date has been announced.
