TikTok’s ban marooned over 170 million monthly users who made the wildly addictive short-form video app a central part of their daily lives.

The controversial Chinese-owned app TikTok has gone offline, about an hour and a half before a deadline that would see it banned in the US.The app posted a message at about 10.30 p.m. eastern time saying: “Sorry,

Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube are getting ready to welcome TikTok users, as the Supreme Court upheld a law that effectively bans the Chinese-owned app from the United States.

TikTok's app was removed from prominent app stores in the US - just before a federal law that would have banned the popular social media platform was scheduled to go into effect.

TikTok began going dark for US users late Saturday night, a little more than an hour before a new law banning the app was set to take effect.

TikTok warned US users late Saturday of an imminent shutdown of its service following a Supreme Court ruling in favor of a law banning the platform.

These updates will initially roll out in the US, with plans to expand to other regions in the coming weeks, as confirmed by Instagram.

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday, Jan. 17, to uphold a law that would ban the app for the 170 million people who use the app in the U.S. The ruling lines up with decisions other courts have made and sets up the ban to go into effect on Sunday, Jan. 19.

TikTok started going dark for 170 million American users in an unprecedented display of the U.S.-China divide over technology and national security.

NBC News reports that TikTok has boosted advertisements for Lemon8, an application also owned by ByteDance, in recent days. Rival social-media apps and websites such as Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat are expected to increase their user base in the wake of a possible ban.

“Our position on this has been clear: TikTok should continue to operate under American ownership. Given the timing of when it goes into effect over a holiday weekend a day before inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement,” read the statement.