TikTok went offline in the United States Saturday night, less than two hours before a ban was slated to go into effect. The extraordinary blackout prevents access to one of the world’s most popular social media apps – one that had been used by 170 million Americans.

The app had more than 170 million monthly users in the U.S. The black-out is the result of a law forcing the service offline unless it sheds its ties to ByteDance, its China-based parent company.

App executives had discussed taking the platform offline on Sunday to highlight the impact of the restriction, but the plans had not been final.