New US law banning TikTok has come into effect in the country. The video-sharing app was banned due to concerns over links to the Chinese government. On Friday, the US Supreme Court upheld law, passed in April 2024, banning the app in the US, unless ByteDance, the China-based parent company, sold the platform to an approved US buyer by the 19th of January.
TikTok users were issued a message earlier on Saturday by the company that said the law would “force us to make our services temporarily unavailable. We’re working to restore our service in the U.S. as soon as possible.”
The Biden administration said Friday that it did not plan to enforce the law and would instead leave its implementation to the incoming Trump administration.
President-elect Trump said Sunday he will issue an executive order to postpone the ban on TikTok and give its Chinese-based company ByteDance more time to divest from the platform.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will be among the various tech leaders at Trump’s inauguration on Monday.