SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The clock has run out on TikTok Saturday night. The app went dark for many users in the United States as a ban took effect.
However, the company’s CEO is confident this is not the end.
“Rest assured, we will do everything in our power to ensure our platform thrives as your online home for limitless creativity and discovery, as well as a source of inspiration and joy for years to come. Thank you. More to come,” said TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.
There is a wide-reaching impact, not just politically, but economically.
There are–or were–tens of millions of users and influencers in the United States, and the company even has an office in the Bay Area that it was looking to expand.
RELATED: TikTok goes offline for US users; Trump ‘likely’ to grant extension to avoid ban
TikTok is now turning to President Trump for a lifeline.
Arianna Villa uses TikTok – a lot. The 19-year-old says it’s entertaining. It’s a place to shop. And like many of her generation, she even uses TikTok for homework. And, it’s her go-to for news.
“You can go there and search up, ‘What’s the answer to this?’ And you can get it off TikTok more than the teacher, literally,” said Villa, who lives in the East Bay. “Trump was the new president. TikTok! TikTok was the first (place) to find out.”
And it may now be up to President Donald Trump to save TikTok.
TikTok issued a warning to its 170 million users in the United States on Saturday that it is set to go dark on Sunday. Although, many are already reporting they can’t find or access the app.
RELATED: What is RedNote, the Chinese social media app that US TikTokers are flocking to?
It states: “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicted that he will work us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”
Trump is currently proposing a 90-day extension once he takes office on Monday. TikTok’s CEO, Show Chew, is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration.
“It is very important to ban TikTok in the U.S. It is a true national security risk. And one of the rare things that we have seen democrats and republicans come together on when they really know what’s going on here,” said Cory Johnson, chief market strategist at Epistrophy Capital Research, and veteran financial journalist who worked for Bloomberg and CNBC.
Johnson supports the law passed by Congress and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court that requires TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell to an American buyer or be banned beginning Jan. 19.
“There is a concern that the information gathered by TikTok could be used by the Chinese military to sow unrest in the United States in the advent of a war, which is a greater and greater concern for Washington, D.C.,” Johnson said.
MORE: ‘Shark Tank’s’ Kevin O’Leary, billionaire Frank McCourt want to buy TikTok
The ACLU says the ban is based on “fear-mongering and speculation.” Others point out that U.S. companies like Google and Meta also collect and sell American users’ data, just like TikTok. And not just users in the United States, but in other countries as well.
Billions of dollars are also at stake for American companies in the form of e-commerce generated through TikTok.
“You wouldn’t think I’ve got stock market information and information about technology companies would be found on TikTok, but it is. And it’s a big business for me personally. So, this is going to cause a disruption in our U.S. economy,” Johnson said.
Others argue TikTok already has mountains of data about U.S. consumers. But Johnson warns, technological advancements, such as AI, will lead to more sophisticated data collection.
“As concerned as we should be, and we should be of what’s going on with our data at Meta and at Google and at X, I think the concern is so much higher when the risks are an actual war,” Johnson said.
South Bay lawmaker Ro Khanna spoke with content creators impacted by the ban.
For many, their livelihoods are at risk.
“Some of them were in tears. They were saying, ‘We’re not even sure if we’re going to get unemployment. What are we going to do?’ No one is talking about the real people who are really getting hurt by this ban. It is tone deaf. It is a bunch of Washington politicians listening to the foreign policy blab. And totally out of touch with Americans.”
He says there are almost a million petition signatures to call on the president to put a pause on the ban. It’s is the most signatures he’s even gotten in eight years in Congress.
Copyright © 2025 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.