TikTok is voluntarily shutting down its service in the United States as divestment or prohibition laws take effect

Washington — TikTok voluntarily shut down the service in the US just hours before a Sunday deadline, cutting off access to tens of thousands of users after the Supreme Court ruled this week maintained a law which effectively banned it due to concerns about its ties to China.

The law passed by Congress last year gave TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance until January 19 to divest TikTok or face being cut off from US app stores and hosting services. TikTok said a sale was not possible and challenged the law in court, but it was rejected by a unanimous Supreme Court on Friday.

The court’s ruling said divest or prohibit law does not violate the freedom of speech of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States, and agrees with the government’s position that the platform can be used by China to collect a large amount of sensitive information about Americans.

While the Biden administration said enforcement of the law would be left to the incoming Trump administration, the company took itself offline shortly before Sunday’s midnight deadline.

Users in the US who opened the app late Saturday night were greeted with a message headlined: “Sorry, TikTok is not available right now.”

“A law banning TikTok has been passed in the United States,” the announcement reads. “Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok right now. We’re fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok when he takes office. Please stay tuned!”

The app was also no longer available in the Apple or Google Play stores. CBS News has reached out to TikTok for comment.

TikTok had said on Friday that it would be “forced to go dark” from Sunday unless the Biden administration assured service providers that the law would not be enforced. The White House called the appeal “a stunt” and said the company should raise its concerns with the Trump administration.

“We see no reason for TikTok or any other company to take action in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Even if President-elect Trump declines to enforce the ban, the law would still be on the books, and companies like Apple and Google could face penalties for violations. Trump previously promised to “save” TikTok and said on Saturday that he was considering an option to extend the deadline for the law to take effect.

“The 90-day extension is something that will most likely be done because it’s appropriate,” he said in the phone interview, adding, “if I decide to do it, I’ll probably announce it on Monday.”

The law contains a provision that allows for a short-term extension if sales are in progress.

Under the Supreme Court arguments on January 10Noel Francisco, a lawyer for TikTok, warned that the platform would shut down once the law took effect, explaining that it would be “extraordinarily difficult” for a divestment to take place under any timeline because the Chinese government opposes a sale of the algorithm that powers the platform by tailoring video recommendations to each user.

“As I understand it, we’re going dark,” Francisco said.

But even if there is an eventual sale that didn’t include TikTok’s algorithm, it would take “many years” for a new team of engineers to rebuild it, and it would be a “fundamentally different platform,” according to Francisco. He said the company’s inability to share user data with ByteDance under the law would cut off US users from viewing content from other parts of the world and vice versa.

The bipartisan law was tucked into a foreign aid package that quickly passed Congress and was signed by President Biden last April. TikTok and ByteDance challenged the law the next month, calling it “an extraordinary and unconstitutional assertion of power” based on “speculative and analytically flawed concerns about data security and content manipulation” that would suppress the speech of millions of Americans.

In a decision in December, a federal appeals court upheld the statute, saying the U.S. government “acted only to protect the freedom of a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to collect data about people in the United States.” Court of Appeal later denied TikTok’s attempt to delay the law’s entry into force pending a Supreme Court review.

The Supreme Court moved with extraordinary speed to take up the case after TikTok asked the judges for a temporary break. The court submitted its opinion a week after hearing arguments and two days before the law went into effect.

“There is no doubt that for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a significant and expansive outlet for expression, engagement, and source of community. But Congress has determined that the divestment is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns. regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and the relationship with a foreign opponent,” reads the court’s opinion.

The judges cited Congress’s finding that companies can be required to release data to the Chinese government under Chinese law.

“The government had good reason to single out TikTok,” the court said.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar noted during arguments that there is “nothing permanent or irreversible that happens” on Sunday. The law authorizes the restrictions to be lifted on TikTok if there is a sale after the date.

“Congress expected us to see something like a game of chicken. ByteDance says we can’t do it, China will never let us do it. But when push comes to shove and these restrictions go into effect, I think that it will fundamentally change the landscape in terms of what ByteDance is willing to consider,” Prelogar said.

In a video statement after the Supreme Court issued its ruling, TikTok chief Shou Zi Chew appeared confident the app would have a future under Trump. He thanked the incoming president for his commitment to finding a solution that would allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States “for years to come.”

Trump, who tried to ban TikTok in his first term because of national security concerns, said on Friday that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about TikTok. A Chinese summary of the call did not mention that it was a topic of discussion.

Barring a sale or Congress overturning the law, there is no long-term certainty about TikTok’s future in the US if Trump or a future president refuse to enforce the law, companies like Apple and Google may still face heavy fines in the future.

“On the 19th, if it doesn’t shut down, there’s an offense, right?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Prelogar, who said, “Yes.”

“And whatever the new president does doesn’t change that reality for these companies,” Sotomayor continued, referring to the sanctions facing app stores and web hosting services.

“That’s right,” Prelogar said, adding that a five-year statute of limitations exists.