Summary
- TikTok stopped working in the US on Saturday, January 18.
- This is due to the TikTok ban that was recently upheld by the Supreme Court.
- President Trump has indicated that he may try to bring the app back, but no return date has been announced.
The wildly successful social media/video app TikTok no longer works in the US as of 10:00pm CST on Saturday, January 18. TikTok, the successor to Musical.ly, exploded in popularity during the pandemic, quickly becoming one of the world’s most-used apps. Hundreds of millions of individuals use TikTok on a daily basis, 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 accusations, but that hasn’t stopped the case against it from going all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court came to a unanimous decision that the proposed TikTok ban could proceed. President Biden indicated that his administration would not enforce the ban, and incoming President Trump has suggested that he may do something to keep the app online. Despite this, TikTok is no longer available in the US at the time of this writing.
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TikTok stopped working at about 10:00pm CST on Saturday, January 18. The TikTok ban in the US has made the app unusable, meaning that users can no longer scroll through their For Your Page, access their saved videos, or talk with their friends. When trying to use TikTok right now in the US, users are greeted with a message that says, “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. 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!”
Is TikTok Down Right Now?
- TikTok no longer works in the US as of January 18.
Prior to TikTok being banned, one solution proposed was for ByteDance to sell the app to an American company. That hasn’t happened, and so it’s unclear what solution will be reached to reinstate the app, assuming Trump does attempt to do so. In the meantime, angry TikTok users have found their own ways to protest the ban. There have been in-person protests, but users have also started downloading Rednote en masse. Rednote, for the initiated, is very similar to TikTok, but it is targeted directly at users in China.
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. 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!
Whether Trump is able to bring TikTok back 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 something like that will actually happen. For now, TikTok users in the US can’t use the app, and no return date has been announced.