TikTok goes dark for US users, while Trump signals he will save it
Summary
- TikTok started going dark for 170 million American users in an unprecedented display of the U.S.-China divide over technology and national security.
The closure of the app disrupted millions of American businesses and social-media entrepreneurs.
TikTok started going dark for 170 million American users in an unprecedented display of the U.S.-China divide over technology and national security.
The app started to halt service Saturday night, as a law was about to take effect requiring it to shed its Chinese ownership or close in the U.S. It marked the first time the U.S. government has compelled the closure of such a widely used app, and disrupted millions of American businesses and social-media entrepreneurs who use TikTok to connect with customers and fans.
TikTok’s disappearance could be brief, however. President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday said he would likely give TikTok a 90-day extension from the potential ban after he takes office Monday. TikTok Chief Executive Shou Chew is scheduled to attend Trump’s inauguration, along with U.S. tech luminaries including Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta Platforms owns TikTok rival Instagram.
Trump’s comments were the latest in a flurry of last-minute statements that capped a yearslong saga complicated by U.S. presidential politics, conflicting geopolitical interests and the ambiguities surrounding enforcement of the law, which outlines hefty penalties for noncompliance.
Before positioning himself as TikTok’s potential savior, Trump tried to ban TikTok in his first term. President Biden, who signed the bipartisan law last April, ended his term with aides saying he wouldn’t enforce it on his final day in office.
TikTok and parent ByteDance have portrayed themselves as independent of China, but their ability to do any divestiture deal to satisfy the U.S. law has been constrained by Beijing. In recent days, Chinese officials have internally discussed options including allowing a trusted non-Chinese party such as Elon Musk to invest in or take control of TikTok’s U.S. operations.
Potential suitors include Project Liberty, led by billionaire Frank McCourt, which said it submitted a proposal to buy TikTok’s U.S. assets other than the app’s algorithm. Much of ByteDance is owned by major American financial firms including BlackRock, General Atlantic and Susquehanna International Group, co-founded by Republican megadonor Jeff Yass.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, as it is formally called, took effect after the Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld it, siding with Congress’s national-security concerns over the claim by the platform and its users that the ban violates the First Amendment.
The law makes it unlawful for an entity to distribute, maintain or update the app, known for its addictive short videos. TikTok planned to shut down the app protectively so that its partners, including Apple and Google’s app stores and Oracle, which hosts U.S. users’ data, would be shielded from legal liability.
Trump had asked the Supreme Court to stop the law from taking effect, saying he wants to pursue a negotiated resolution and that it is possible to spare TikTok while addressing the national-security concerns that drove Congress to enact it. The law allows for an extension if there is progress toward a qualified divestiture.
Write to Elizabeth Wollman at Elizabeth.Wollman@wsj.com
