TikTok is letting users know that the social media app will be temporarily unavailable due to the upcoming U.S. ban taking effect on Sunday.
Users logging on were met with a pop-up message reading “Important update from TikTok,” advising that the soon-to-be-implemented U.S. law would “force us to make our services temporarily unavailable. We’re working to restore our service in the U.S. as soon as possible.” Users on Saturday could still click through the message and operate the app.
The countdown until the social media app goes dark is all but a given after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously voted Friday to uphold Congress’ ban unless the app sells its US assets by Jan. 19. President Joe Biden said he would not enforce the ban, leaving it up to President-elect Donald Trump, whose inauguration is set for Monday and who told NBC News he expects to “most likely” implement a 90-day hold.
“We regret that a U.S. law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19 and force us to make our services temporarily unavailable,” the pop-up window reads. “We’re working to restore our service in the U.S. as soon as possible, andwe appreciate your support. Please stay tuned.”
The social media platform is still operational in the U.S. as of Saturday at 9 pm ET, though its fate remains unclear.
The banning of TikTok, which has 170 American users, stems from national security concerns by U.S. officials about the level of control the Chinese government has over the company.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based private global company founded by Chinese entrepreneurs. Around 60% of the parent company is owned by global institutional investors, 20% by the company’s founders and 20% by employees, according to TikTok.
This story has been updated to add a photo.
Contributing: Jonathan Limehouse, Mike Snider, Greta Cross, Clare Mulroy, Maureen Groppe & Rebecca Morin, USA TODAY
