Mock funerals as TikTok dies a short death across America

TikTok has thanked Donald Trump after the president-elect’s efforts persuaded the social media giant to restore the app’s service to its 150 million American users.

As promised, the Chinese-owned video-sharing app had shut down completely in the US by Sunday morning, in response to a law upheld by the Supreme Court that allows for the platform to be banned in the country.

The app stopped working at about 4am UK time, after several hours in which it filled up with users bidding each other a tearful goodbye and staging mock funerals. Users were met with a message reading: “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the United States.”

Trump, who previously said he was considering a 90-day reprieve, later vowed to “issue an executive order on Monday” delaying the ban. He added on his own social media platform Truth Social: “I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture.”

Meanwhile in Washington, JD Vance, the vice president-elect, met with the vice-president of China, Han Zheng, to discuss “a wide range of issues”. Last week, Trump and China’s president Xi Jinping held a phone call to talk about TikTok, trade and Taiwan.

Later on Sunday, TikTok released a message after the app regained functionality for many Americans. “As a result of president Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the US,” the platform said.

In an earlier statement, TikTok thanked Trump for “providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties [for] providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive”. Its chief executive Shou Chew is expected to attend his inauguration on Monday.

Legislation outlining the ban passed Congress last spring amidst bipartisan concerns over the app’s Chinese ownership.

Trump saving the platform represents an about-turn from his stance during his first term in office. In 2020, he aimed to ban the short video app over concerns the company was sharing Americans’ personal info with Beijing. More recently, Trump has said he has “a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” crediting the app with helping him win over young voters in the 2024 election.

Tim Wu, who served as a special assistant for technology and competition policy in the Biden administration, portrayed the shutdown as a stunt. “The firm didn’t actually need to shut down, but is doing so to allow Trump to ‘rescue’ TikTok when he takes office and make some kind of lousy deal and declare victory,” he said in a post on X.

Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, had insisted that the law would be upheld. “The way we read that is that he’s [Trump is] going to try to force along a true divestiture, changing of hands, the ownership,” he told NBC. “It’s not the platform that members of Congress were concerned about. It’s the Chinese Communist Party”.

Two of Trump’s allies in Congress, Senators Tom Cotton and Pete Ricketts, said that they opposed a 90-day extension, applauding Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Google for removing TikTok from their app stores.

The platform has become a cultural force in the United States since the pandemic, reshaping the media and publishing landscape and attracting 170 million users as an avid audience for a new generation of influencers, comedians and entertainers who made their names there.

Markell Washington, a user in Los Angeles, staged a ceremony on Saturday to lament its departure in which a black-clad pianist sang Amazing Grace. “A real one gone too soon,” he said on Instagram.

American tennis champion Coco Gauff was in Melbourne as TikTok went dark, winning a quarter-final match in the Australian Open. Handed a pen afterwards, she wrote: “RIP TikTok USA” on a camera lens, with an emoji of a breaking heart.

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