TikTok fans in the U.S. are racing to secure alternatives and safeguard their digital empires ahead of a looming shutdown, evoking the chaos of India's 2020 ban that erased the app from the lives of 200 million users overnight.

After amassing more than 170 million users in the country in less than seven years, TikTok has stopped working in the United States and disappeared from app stores. TikTok stopped working in the United States late on Saturday and disappeared from Apple and Google app stores ahead of a law that takes effect on Sunday requiring the shutdown of the platform.

TikTok told users the app will be "temporarily unavailable" as its Chinese parent company ByteDance pins its hopes on Donald Trump to save it.

The Indian Government’s action in 2020 serves as a case study of how quickly platforms can be sidelined due to regulatory decisions.

TikTok’s time in the United States is counting down. But Washington is only the latest government to impose restrictions on the video app.

When India banned TikTok in June 2020, Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube gained big time. Will it be the same with the US suspension?

Trump says an announcement will probably come once he takes office on Monday about the app's future in the US.

The Chinese-owned company said it would cut off its services unless the U.S. assures Apple, Google and other companies that they would not be punished for hosting and distributing TikTok.

America's TikTok ban came five years after India blocked the app, citing security reasons. India had said that TikTok, along with 58 other Chinese apps, posed a threat to sovereignty and security of the country.

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 possibility of the U.S. outlawing TikTok kept influencers and users in anxious limbo during the four-plus years that lawmakers and judges debated the fate of the video-sharing app. Now, the moment its fans dreaded is here , but uncertainty over TikTok’s future lingers.