Prohibition law comes into effect: TikTok goes offline in the United States

TikTok has gone offline in America. Shortly before the legal ban on TikTok went into effect at midnight (Washington, DC time), US users have been greeted with an advisory text instead of a short video: “Sorry, TikTok is not available right now.” (Sorry, TikTok is not available right now.) And: “A law banning TikTok has gone into effect in the United States. Unfortunately, this means you can no longer use TikTok until further notice.”

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The US Supreme Court on Friday confirmed the law banning TikTok. Chinese TikTok owner ByteDance has also taken sister services Lemon8 and Marvel Snap offline; Although not named in the law, the parent company is ByteDance.

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But the Chinese have never given up and are now counting on Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States on Monday. “We consider ourselves fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to restore TikTok after taking office,” informs the app in the USA, which is not working there. The app can no longer be found in Google and Apple’s US app stores. It’s technically called com.zhiliaoapp.musically, so it still has TikTok’s old American name, Musical.ly. With VPN services, US users can currently access TikTok, but cannot log in there.

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This is how times are changing: In 2020, when Trump was the 45th President of America, he himself tried to ban TikTok by presidential order. A court has put a stay on Trump’s TikTok ban. Trump has since been voted off once and re-elected four years later. Meanwhile, the US legislature swung into action: both US parties together passed a law with a clear majority, under which TikTok would be banned if it remained in the hands of China. During the election campaign, Trump suddenly changed his mind and began to campaign for the protection of TikTok in the United States. However, he was unable to convince the Supreme Court to strike down the law.

“I have a very warm place in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said in December. The man saw himself as particularly successful among young voters and credited TikTok for that. “I won the youth category by 34 points and there are people who say TikTok has something to do with it.” In fact, according to election researchers, his rival Kamala Harris was ahead by six percentage points in this group.

The American media attribute Trump’s change of heart to, among other things, a large donation to the Republican campaign fund by Jeff Yass. This billionaire owns 15 percent stake in ByteDance. On Saturday, Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC television that he would “probably” give TikTok a 90-day license to operate after taking office. The law gives direct authority to do so (Protecting Americans from Foreign Enemies Controlled Applications Act) The President doesn’t actually do that. This is planned only if ByteDance can show real steps towards sales.

But he may try it, like he tried to ban TikTok. And Trump can use this to convince the current Justice Minister that he should stay away from TikTok’s service providers for the time being. The law provides for higher penalties, but not for TikTok, ByteDance or their users, but for hosters, app stores and similar service providers. So Google, Apple and company have to be reliably assured that they won’t be penalized for allowing the apps. “Rest assured that we are working to restore our service in the US,” ByteDance said after the apps were taken offline in the US. “Stay tuned!”

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