January 19, 2025Reuters
by David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -TikTok stopped working in the United States late on Saturday and disappeared from Google and Apple’s app stores, before a law came into effect on Sunday banning the app in the country.
President-elect Donald Trump said earlier Saturday that he would “most likely” grant a 90-day reprieve from enforcement after his inauguration at the White House on Monday.
“A law banning TikTok has come into force in the United States. Unfortunately, this means you can’t use TikTok right now. We’re fortunate that President Trump said he would work with us to find a solution to restore TikTok once he takes office. Please stay with us! “, could we read in a message that was displayed when users tried to connect to the application on Saturday around 10:45 p.m. (03:45 GMT Sunday).
Other applications from Chinese giant ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, were also unavailable in American application stores and it was not possible to connect to them.
The law passed last April by Congress which requires TikTok to break with its parent company under penalty of ban, was validated Friday by the American Supreme Court after an appeal by the Chinese social network.
-According to the Department of Justice, TikTok poses a serious threat to national security because of its access to the personal data of many Americans, potentially exploitable by the Chinese government.
TikTok denies having shared or wants to share the data of American users and denounces an unconstitutional law violating the right to freedom of expression.
The Chinese social network called on President Joe Biden in a press release on Friday to intervene to prevent the platform from closing in the United States.
The White House responded on Saturday that the fate of the application was now in the hands of the Trump administration.
(with Jaspreet Singh, Aditya Soni et Mrinmay Dey, Doyinsola Oladipo et David Ljunggren; française version Camille Raynaud)
Related News :