Washington, 19 January 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Chinese-owned short-form video app TikTok was not available in the United States on Saturday evening, shortly before a ban on the app entered force.

Users received a warning message stating TikTok's services were "temporarily unavailable."

"We're working to restore our service in the U.S. as soon as possible," the message continued.

A law banning TikTok in the US unless it is sold by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, was due to enter force on Sunday but the popular platform, with 170 million users in the US, went down before then.

Video editing app Capcut and TikTok alternative Lemon8, which also belong to ByteDance, stopped working too and the apps were no longer available in app stores.

Users responded with fury, with many giving voice to their anger on other sites such as X.

US President-elect Donald Trump has said he was considering giving TikTok a three-month reprieve from the ban. He is due to replace US President Joe Biden in the White House on Monday.

"I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at," Trump said in an interview with US broadcaster NBC published on Saturday.

"The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it's appropriate. You know, it's appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It's a very big situation."

"If I decide to do that, I'll probably announce it on Monday," he added.

Biden signed the ban-or-sale law into effect last April after it was approved in Congress on national security grounds.

Lawmakers fear that the Chinese government could gain access to vast amounts of personal data through TikTok and use the platform to exert political influence.

The law gave China's ByteDance until January 19 to divest from its US operations or face a nationwide blackout from Google and Apple's app stores.

The law set high penalties of $5,000 per user for US service providers that continue to supply TikTok, a sum that could swiftly run to billions of dollars.

Despite the clock ticking on the issue, TikTtok and ByteDance steadfastly refused to even consider separating.

As the deadline approached, it became clear that outgoing President Joe Biden's administration was reluctant to deal with a TikTok blackout on his last day in office. The White House said enforcing the law would be left to Trump, signalling any violations by US companies would not be punished.

However, this did not go far enough for TikTok, nor for its partners, according to reports, given the potential penalties they face.

On Friday, ByteDance demanded explicit assurances from Washington, at least to the most important tech service providers, threatening to otherwise shut down its apps in the US.

The law restricts Trump's possibilities to some extent though he has said repeatedly that a deal to allow TikTok to operate is possible.

TikTok could potentially become a bargaining chip in the frosty relations between Washington and Beijing.

For now, TikTok boss Shou Chew is set to attend Trump's inauguration on Monday, according to reports - alongside other tech bosses such as Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, who runs X.

Photo: MIA archive