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TikTok shuts down for users in the US

As the app abruptly shuts down just before the nationwide ban, users are hoping that President-elect Donald Trump would extend the deadline for selling the short-form video hosting service to an American firm.

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Nisha Qureshi
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TikTok was banned nationwide in the United States, preventing internet service providers and app stores from distributing it. Several sources stated that the restriction would be eased away gradually. However, TikTok shut down late Saturday night, hours before the ban came into effect.

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"You can’t use TikTok for now due to a law banning TikTok," said the pop-up notification on the app. However, the text added, that President-elect Donald Trump “has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.”

The ban came into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban following a legislative mandate requiring TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest its U.S. operations due to national security concerns. The divestment did not happen until Saturday, leaving the app to be unaccessible to its 170 million users in the country. 

However, on January 18, 2025, President-elect Donald Trump had announced he would most likely suspend a ban on TikTok for 90 days, pushing back a deadline for a U.S.-based entity to purchase the social media app when he returns to the White House on January 20, 2025. 

President Joe Biden had also earlier stated that any actions implementing a ban on TikTok would fall to the next administration. 

If Donald Trump issues a 90-day reprieve on the TikTok ban on Monday, a deadline requiring the app to be sold to a U.S. entity, the ban would be extended to April 19, 2025. 

While Trump had earlier supported the ban, he opposed the ban in an earlier court filing, arguing if the Supreme Court blocked the ban, he would be able to secure a political resolution to keep the app in the U.S. after his inauguration on Jan. 20.

U.S. officials have expressed fears that TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, could be used by the Chinese government to collect sensitive data on American users. This includes personal information that could be exploited for surveillance or manipulation purposes. In response to these concerns, Congress passed a bipartisan law requiring ByteDance to divest its stake in TikTok by January 19, 2025, or face a complete ban from U.S. app stores and hosting services.

However, TikTok has denied all the allegations. 

Donald Trump TikTok Ban
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