**TikTok Deactivated in the US Ahead of Imminent Ban**

**US users face uncertainty as TikTok ceases operations just hours before a ban takes effect, with potential solutions on the horizon.**

In an unexpected move, TikTok has gone offline in the United States, just hours before a prohibition on the app was set to take effect. Users in the US were greeted with a message indicating that a law had been enacted banning their access, stating, "you can't use TikTok for now."

The platform's sudden shutdown follows a dire warning issued by the company, which emphasized that it would "go dark" unless the outgoing Biden administration provided guarantees that the impending ban wouldn’t be enforced. President-elect Donald Trump has mentioned that he is "most likely" to offer TikTok a 90-day extension from the ban as he takes office on Monday.

Reports suggest that TikTok has also been removed from Google's US App Store, while its website has ceased displaying videos, further isolating its American user base. The recent legal developments come on the heels of a Supreme Court ruling that upheld the law banning the app in the US, unless its China-based parent company, ByteDance, divests the platform by January 19—which has yet to happen.

The legislation, enacted last April, mandated that ByteDance must sell the US version of TikTok to a neutral party to prevent an outright ban, a requirement that has not been fulfilled to date. TikTok has challenged the constitutionality of the legislation, arguing it infringes on the free speech rights of its approximately 170 million users in the country.

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