Trump announced the decision in a post on his Truth Social account as millions of TikTok users in the U.S. awoke to discover they could no longer access the TikTok app or platform. Google and Apple removed the app from their digital stores to comply with a federal law that required them to do so if TikTok parent company ByteDance didn't sell its U.

The president-elect unveiled plans for a Day One executive order to save TikTok from a ban, which is immediately raising a host of legal questions.

Analysts have suggested it is "just matter of time" until the US ban on TikTok spreads to allied countries and beyond – if the Trump administration decides to keep it offline. The app has been switched off in America after US lawmakers ruled it was a national security risk because of owner ByteDance's ties to the Chinese government - ties it denies.

TikTok’s app was removed from prominent app stores on Saturday just before a federal law that would have banned the popular social media platform was scheduled to go into effect

President Joe Biden last year signed a law Congress had passed with bipartisan support to force TikTok to divest from Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a ban, citing concer