From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!
Sunday, January 19, 2025
On Sunday, Chinese social media platform TikTok “went dark” in the US during the hours ahead of the enactment of a ban on the app in the country.
The app also vanished from Google Play and Apple app stores.
The app gave user a message that read “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.” The message also said that the law “[forced them] to make [their] services temporarily unavailable. [They’re] working to restore [their services] in the [US] as soon as possible.”
The message also said, “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.”
Trump said, “The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate. […] If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday.”
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday.”
A ban on a major social media platform by the US government was unprecedented. Free speech advocates likened the ban to the type of authoritarianism US politicians criticize themselves. Free speech advocacy group PEN said, “Restricting access to foreign media is a hallmark of repressive governments, and we should always be wary when national security is invoked to silence speech.”
The app had previously said it would go offline on Sunday unless US President Joe Biden guaranteed the decision would go unenforced. Ahead of the servers going down, content creators posted videos bidding farewell to their followers.
