The vertical videos that once flowed natively from a sleek smartphone app have been replaced by a link to a website, and the trending tunes that soundtracked them have been silenced.
TikTok has officially gone dark in the U.S., at least for now.
A message on the app for U.S. users says that TikTok isn’t available for now but ends with an optimistic note that puts the ball in President Elect Donald Trump’s court: “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”
ByteDance’s first Hail Mary to prevent a ban of its social media app TikTok fell incomplete on the steps of the Supreme Court with Friday’s unanimous ruling upholding the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which mandated that TikTok sell to a U.S. company by Jan. 19 or face a ban in the country.
Three agency executives told ADWEEK earlier this week that the platform will automatically pause ad campaigns in the U.S. starting Sunday.
Shuree Jones, group director of paid social and influencer media at Rain the Growth Agency, told ADWEEK that historical data, campaign performance reports, and creative assets will remain accessible, and advertisers will be able to manually restart campaigns without losing data if the ban is postponed.
TikTok assured advertisers that all reserved inventory will be refunded.
The fight is far from over for TikTok, which has found an unlikely ally in President-elect Donald Trump.
