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TikTok stops working in the United States. Is it still valid in Honduras?
Trump said he would “probably” give the platform a 90-day extension to avoid being banned in the United States. CapCut and Lemon8, other ByteDance apps, were also removed.
TikTok, the social media platform, went dark in the United States on Saturday after the Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law passed by Congress last year that required the platform to divest from its parent company, China’s ByteDance , or face closure.
The app, which has 170 million users in the US, sent many of them a message on their phones saying: “Sorry, TikTok is not available at the moment,” attributing the cessation of its operations to the legislation pushed by Congress.
However, according to the Biden administration, TikTok made this decision on its own initiative. Following the Supreme Court ruling, the White House announced that the current executive would not enforce the law and that its implementation would be left to the new president, Donald Trump, who will take office next Monday.
In an interview with NBC this Saturday, Trump said he would “probably” grant the platform a 90-day extension to avoid being banned in the United States.
TikTok is no longer available for download in the US
The TikTok message appeared on users’ devices about an hour and a half before the law was set to go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Sunday.
When trying to access the platform, users received a notice informing them that the app was blocked with a message from the company stating: “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution. Please stay tuned!”
In addition, some users reported that TikTok has been removed from the Apple App Store in the US, making it no longer available for download.
In practice, the entry into force of the law forces Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores, as well as web hosting companies that collaborate with the platform, such as Oracle and Amazon Web Services, to cut ties with it.
Failure to comply with the rule, which was passed on national security grounds, carries significant financial penalties: Companies that continue to support TikTok could face fines of up to $5,000 per user, which could translate into billions of dollars given the size of its U.S. user base.
On Friday evening, TikTok had already warned that it would be forced to suspend operations on Sunday unless the Biden administration guaranteed that it would not impose fines on the companies that support the app.
In response, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre last night called TikTok’s statement a “publicity stunt” and reiterated that the Biden administration had no intention of enforcing the law, leaving the decision to Trump.
The legislation, passed in April 2024, gave ByteDance nine months to sell its U.S. operations to a buyer that was not considered an “adversary” to the country and stated that it would otherwise be banned on Jan. 19 on national security grounds.
The Biden administration and the lawmakers who pushed for the rule say it is imperative that TikTok divest itself of ByteDance because of the risk that the Chinese government could access U.S. user data or influence public debate in the country.
Unlinked from China
Faced with these arguments, TikTok claims to have taken measures to protect the privacy of its users and denies that its platform can be used by Beijing as a propaganda tool.
In addition to TikTok, the ban has also affected CapCut, a popular video editing app owned by ByteDance and used by many creators to generate content on the platform.
Even if Trump decides to reverse the measure, the entry into force of this law marks the first time in history that the US has banned a social network at a national level.
In the case of Honduras, the platform remains in force, as it does in other Latin American countries.
TikTok drags down Capcut and Lemon8; they can no longer be downloaded in the US
TikTok was not the only app affected by the new law in the United States. The CapCut and Lemon8 apps, owned by ByteDance, the same company behind TikTok, were also removed from Apple’s App Store in the US, preventing users from downloading them in the country.
Popular video editor CapCut and lifestyle social app Lemon8 have been added to the list of platforms blocked under a move that forces TikTok to break ties with ByteDance or face closure in the United States.
