TikTok was taken offline in the United States, hours before a new law banning the platform came into force.
A message appearing on the app aimed at US users stated that a law banning TikTok had been enacted, meaning “you cannot use TikTok at this time.”
“We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated he will work with us on a solution to restore TikTok once he takes office,” it reads.
It comes after the social media platform warned it would “go dark” on Sunday unless the outgoing Biden administration provided assurances the ban would not be enforced.
President-elect Donald Trump earlier said he would “most likely” grant TikTok a 90-day reprieve after taking office on Monday.
Users reported that the app was also removed from Apple and Google’s US app stores and that TikTok.com was not serving videos.
Lawmakers voted to ban the app last year over concerns about its ties to the Chinese government. TikTok has repeatedly said it does not share information with Beijing.
The law, passed in April last year, required TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to sell the US version of the platform to a neutral party by January 19 to avoid an outright ban , which she did not do.
TikTok challenged the law, arguing that it violates the protection of free speech for its 170 million users in the country.
In the hours before to social media platform offlinecontent creators were posting videos to say goodbye to their followers.
Creator Nicole Bloomgarden told the BBC that not being on TikTok would result in a significant pay cut.
Another user, Erika Thompson, said the platform’s educational content would be the community’s “biggest loss.”
