Apple and Google removed TikTok from their app stores Saturday night, complying with a law requiring China’s ByteDance to divest the social app or see it face an efficient ban within the U.S.Â
The Apple App Store and the Google Play store’s removal of TikTok means people within the U.S. can now not download the favored short-form video app on their devices. The app’s delisting comes after the Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which President Joe Biden signed in April. TikTok on Friday said its service would go dark, meaning it could stop working for Americans, unless the Biden administration intervened.
On Apple’s App Store, a message saying “App Not Available” appears on TikTok’s former app-install page.
“This app is currently not available in your country or region,” the message said.
“We’re sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server,” said a message on the page the previously hosted TikTok on the Google Play store.
Some users who visited TikTok’s app and website on Saturday were greeted with a message that said, “Sorry, TikTok is not available right away.”
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted within the U.S. Unfortunately, meaning you may’t use TikTok for now,” the notice said. “We’re fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he’ll work with us on an answer to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”
Lemon8, one other service owned by ByteDance, also displayed a notice letting users realize it wasn’t available within the U.S. The app had shot up the charts recently, becoming one of the crucial popular free apps on iOS.
“Sorry, Lemon8 is not available right away,” the notice states.
TikTok halted service of its app within the U.S. on Saturday.
The law requires that service providers now not support TikTok throughout the U.S. if ByteDance didn’t perform a “qualified divestiture” of the app by Sunday. Consequently, Apple, Google and Oracle could face tough penalties for failing to stick to the law. Apple and Google previously distributed the app through its app stores while Oracle provides cloud computing services to TikTok and said in June that the law would hurt its business.
After the Supreme Court’s decision, TikTok CEO Shou Chew said use of TikTok is a First Amendment right and added that over 7 million American businesses use it to generate profits and find customers.
Awaiting Trump
“Rest assured, we are going to do every thing in our power to make sure our platform thrives as your online home for limitless creativity and discovery in addition to a source of inspiration and joy for years to come back,” Chew said in a TikTok video.
Chew also thanked President-elect Donald Trump, who previously asked the Supreme Court to pause the law’s implementation and allow his administration “the chance to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue within the case.” Chew is predicted to attend Trump’s inauguration in Washington on Monday, together with tech leaders from firms including Meta, Amazon, Apple and Google.
Trump arrived in Washington Saturday evening. His transition team didn’t immediately reply to the TikTok shutdown. Trump on Friday said that the Supreme Court’s decision was expected “and everybody must respect it.”
“My decision on TikTok will likely be made within the not too distant future, but I will need to have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media app Truth Social.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Saturday acknowledged TikTok’s statement that it could go dark and characterised it as a “stunt.”
“Now we have laid out our position clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this law will fall to the following administration,” Jean-Pierre said. “So TikTok and other firms should take up any concerns with them.”
Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he would “almost certainly” give TikTok a 90-day extension of the Sunday deadline, and that he would “probably announce” a choice on Monday.
“I believe that might be, actually, an option that we have a look at,” Trump said within the phone interview. “The 90-day extension is something that will likely be almost certainly done, since it’s appropriate. You realize, it’s appropriate. Now we have to take a look at it fastidiously. It’s a really big situation.”
Artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI on Saturday submitted a bid for TikTok that might lead to the AI-powered search engine startup mix with TikTok’s U.S. operations and recent capital partners, CNBC reported.
Businessman Frank McCourt’s web advocacy group Project Liberty announced on Jan. 9, that it had submitted a proposal to purchase TikTok from ByteDance at undisclosed terms. McCourt told CNBC on Friday that “we, I feel, are the one bidder” that meets the needed criteria of disentangling the technology from the Chinese algorithm.
WATCH: Congress calls for extension of TikTok ban deadline.
