TikTok has officially gone dark.
The well-loved video sharing platform, which was used by 170 million people in America, was removed from prominent app stores in the country on Saturday (January 18) just before a federal law that would have banned the popular social media platform was scheduled to go into effect.
By 10.50pm Eastern Standard Time, the app was not found on Apple and Google’s app stores.
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Those who have tried to access the app have been met with the following message: "A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately that means you can’t use TikTok for now.
"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!"
It's unclear what the 'solution' may be, but it might come from the handful of multimillionaires who offered to buy the app — one being MrBeast.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, tweeted on January 14: "Okay fine, I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned."
His tweet then went viral, sparking him to give an update to his millions of followers.
"Unironically I’ve had so many billionaires reach out to me since I tweeted this, let’s see if we can pull this off," the 26-year-old announced.
In a TikTok video, he then added: "Just got out of a meeting with a bunch of billionaires, TikTok, we mean business."
TikTok fans have since been sitting on the edge of their seats to hear more from the successful YouTuber ahead of today's ban.
As people continued to call for him to buy the app on Twitter, MrBeast replied to one person's post, saying: "Can’t say anything right now, stay tuned."
As per TikTok's message to its users, it's expected that president-elect Donald Trump will 'save' the app.
He has said he would 'most likely' give TikTok 90 more days to work out a deal that would allow the popular video-sharing platform to avoid a US ban.
Speaking in an NBC News interview, Trump said that he had not decided what to do but was considering granting TikTok a reprieve after he is sworn into office
He will be sworn into office for a second time tomorrow (January 20).
In the meantime, the 170 million TikTok fans in the US will have to wait to see if the app will be saved from obsoletion.
Topics: TikTok, Social Media, Technology, MrBeast, Business
Niamh Shackleton