TikTok users across the United States faced disruptions on the social media platform on Saturday evening, just hours before a federal ban on the app was set to take effect.
The unexpected outage prevented many users from accessing or using the service, causing widespread frustration and speculation online.In addition to the service outage, TikTok was removed from various app stores operated by Apple and Google, and its website displayed a message indicating that the short-form video platform was no longer available.
The message also included a statement referencing President Trump’s previous pledge to “save” the platform.However, this statement appeared to be referring to President-elect Donald Trump’s intention to give TikTok a 90-day extension, which would allow it to continue operating.
Trump expressed this possibility, stating that such an announcement could be made on the day of his swearing-in as president, which is scheduled for Monday.
TikTok addressed the situation through a message, saying its service would be “temporarily unavailable” and that they were working to restore the US service “as soon as possible.” Users are being directed to download their data, a process that may take days to process, as previously announced by the company.
TikTok’s Chinese ownership by ByteDance, a technology company based in Beijing, has long raised concerns among US lawmakers and administration officials, who consider it a national security threat.
The concerns are likely due to ByteDance’s ownership of other video editing apps, such as CapCut and Lemon8, which were also unavailable for service on Saturday evening.It seems that the initial report was referencing a past situation.
