ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is required to sell the app to a U.S.-based buyer or face a nationwide ban.

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

Users in the U.S. who opened the app were greeted with a message that read, "Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now."

The decision came a week after the justices heard a First Amendment challenge to a law aimed at the wildly popular short-form video platform used by 170 million Americans that the government fears could be influenced by China.

The high-profile names who could potentially buy TikTok following the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the law banning the platform in the US.

TikTok is set to be banned in the US on 19 January after the Supreme Court denied a last ditch legal bid from its Chinese owner, ByteDance. It found the law banning the social media platform did not violate the first amendment rights of TikTok and its 170 million users,