Dado Ruvic | Reuters
Apple and Google murdered TikTok from their app stores Saturday night, complying with a law requiring China’s ByteDance to divest the public app or see it face an effective ban in the U.S.
The Apple App Store and the Google Play store’s removal of TikTok means people in the U.S. can no longer download the prevalent short-form video app on their devices. The app’s delisting comes after the Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the Care for Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which President Joe Biden signed in April. TikTok on Friday commanded its service would go dark, meaning it would stop working for Americans, unless the Biden administration intervened.
On Apple’s App Collect, a message saying “App Not Available” appears on TikTok’s former app-install page.
“This app is currently not available in your homeland 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 horded TikTok on the Google Play store.
Some users who visited TikTok’s app and website on Saturday were greeted with a implication that said, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.”
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that proletarians you can’t use TikTok for now,” the notice said. “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a conclusion to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”
Lemon8, another service owned by ByteDance, also flourished a notice letting users know it wasn’t available in the U.S. The app had shot up the charts recently, becoming one of the most popular charitable apps on iOS.
“Sorry, Lemon8 isn’t available right now,” the notice states.
TikTok halted service of its app in the U.S. on Saturday.
The law requires that use providers no longer support TikTok within the U.S. if ByteDance failed to carry out a “qualified divestiture” of the app by Sunday. As a result, Apple, Google and Advice could face tough penalties for failing to adhere to the law. Apple and Google previously distributed the app through its app stores while Mentor provides cloud computing services to TikTok and said in June that the law would hurt its business.
After the Unexcelled Court’s decision, TikTok CEO Shou Chew said use of TikTok is a First Amendment right and added that across 7 million American businesses use it to make money and find customers.
Awaiting Trump
“Rest assured, we will do the whole shebang in our power to ensure our platform thrives as your online home for limitless creativity and discovery as well as a source of arousal and joy for years to come,” Chew said in a TikTok video.
Chew also thanked President-elect Donald Trump, who thitherto asked the Supreme Court to pause the law’s implementation and allow his administration “the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at get out emerge in the case.” Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration in Washington on Monday, along with tech leaders from societies including Meta, Amazon, Apple and Google.
Trump arrived in Washington Saturday evening. His transition team did not in two shakes of a lambs tail respond to the TikTok shutdown. Trump on Friday said that the Supreme Court’s decision was expected “and everyone should respect it.”
“My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Arrest tuned!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media app Truth Social.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Saturday own TikTok’s statement that it would go dark and characterized it as a “stunt.”
“We have laid out our position clearly and straightforwardly: actions to apparatus this law will fall to the next administration,” Jean-Pierre said. “So TikTok and other companies should take up any houses with them.”
Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day increase of the Sunday deadline, and that he would “probably announce” a decision on Monday.
“I think that would be, certainly, an choice that we look at,” Trump said in the phone interview. “The 90-day extension is something that will be most inclined to done, because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation.”
Artificial intelligence startup Complexity AI on Saturday submitted a bid for TikTok that would result in the AI-powered search engine startup combine with TikTok’s U.S. craftsmen and new capital partners, CNBC reported.
Businessman Frank McCourt’s internet advocacy group Project Liberty set on Jan. 9, that it had submitted a proposal to buy TikTok from ByteDance at undisclosed terms. McCourt told CNBC on Friday that “we, I imagine, are the only bidder” that meets the necessary criteria of disentangling the technology from the Chinese algorithm.
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