The clock may be running out for TikTok. The company behind the wildly popular social media platform says it will “go dark” on Sunday unless it receives clear assurances from government officials that the US ban set to take effect that day won’t be enforced.
In a Friday evening post on the social media platform X, TikTok said that statements issued by the White House and Department of Justice “failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance” to the service providers required to make TikTok available in the US.
“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on Jan. 19,” the statement read.
The US Supreme Court earlier on Friday rejected TikTok’s request to overturn a law passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden last year that would effectively ban the app in the US if TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, doesn’t sell it to a buyer deemed fit by US officials by Sunday, Jan. 19.
The nation’s highest court rejected TikTok’s argument that the ban would infringe on the US company’s free speech rights, as well as those of its 170 million active US users. Instead, it sided with the government’s case that the ban isn’t about free speech at all but about ownership and national security.
The White House issued a statement Friday saying that Biden’s position on TikTok hasn’t changed. He still believes that TikTok should remain available to Americans, but under ownership that satisfies the government’s national security concerns.
“Given the sheer fact of timing, this administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next administration, which takes office on Monday,” the statement said.
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Lawmakers in both political parties have long voiced concerns that TikTok could be a threat to national security and could be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans or spread disinformation to further China’s agenda.
TikTok continues to deny those accusations. Ahead of votes in Congress earlier this year, TikTok rallied its US users, calling on them to urge their representatives on Capitol Hill to vote down a ban. But the measure ultimately passed by wide margins in both chambers of Congress and was signed by Biden.
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But incoming President Donald Trump, who pushed for a ban during his first term, now says he’s no longer in favor of one. Ahead of the oral arguments, lawyers for Trump filed an amicus brief in the case. They didn’t take a side but instead ask the court to delay the ban to give Trump time to come up with a “political resolution.”
In a video posted Friday afternoon on TikTok and other social media platforms, TikTok CEO Shou Chew didn’t say what the TikTok planned to do, or what its American users would see when they opened up their apps after the deadline passed. Instead, he thanked Trump for pledging to work with TikTok to find a solution that will keep the app running in the US.
“We are grateful and pleased to have the support of a president who truly understands our platform — one who has used TikTok to express his own thoughts and perspectives, connecting with the world and generating more than 60 billion views of his content in the process,” Chew said.
So what’s next for lawmakers and TikTok? Here’s what you need to know.
What does the law do?
The law is aimed at forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok to a buyer American officials are OK with, as well as guaranteeing that ByteDance no longer has access to US user data or control over the TikTok algorithm that decides what videos American users see.
TikTok was given nine months to comply, hence the Jan. 19 deadline, at which point the government could require the removal of its app from US app stores. The president could grant a 90-day extension. Earlier this week, a pair of Senate Democrats announced legislation that would have given TikTok another nine months, but it was blocked by Republicans.
TikTok has long said that a sale is not an option. As it said it planned to in its Friday X post, TikTok could effectively chose to “go dark” if the ban does go into effect. It’s also possible that the app would die a slow death. It wouldn’t shutdown, but would no longer be available in the Google and Apple app stores and current users wouldn’t be able to get software updates, which would eventually make the app too buggy to use.
Biden, who signed the bill that established those requirements, remains in office until Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
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What’s next?
After originally calling for a ban during his first presidency, Trump said during the 2024 campaign that he wasn’t in favor of one and pledged to “save TikTok,” though he didn’t specify how he’d do that.
During a press conference in December, Trump pointed to the role TikTok played during the election, crediting it with helping him pick up the votes of young people.
“TikTok had an impact, and so we’re taking a look at it,” Trump told the press. “I have a little bit of a warm spot in my heart. I’ll be honest.”
Trump said in March on CNBC’s Squawk Box that though he still viewed the app as a danger to national security, he no longer thought it should be banned, saying, “There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it.”
Trump added that banning TikTok would only boost the power of Facebook, which he referred to as an “enemy of the people.”
In September, Trump pledged to “save TikTok,” according to an Associated Press report. But during an interview that aired last month on Meet the Press, Trump didn’t directly say if or how he’d help TikTok avoid a ban.
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Who has opposed the TikTok ban?
Free speech and digital rights groups, as well as some security experts, have long opposed the idea of a ban, saying that singling out TikTok doesn’t do anything to solve the broader problems with social media. Several filed briefs with the high court supporting TikTok.
Instead they argue that lawmakers would be better off passing comprehensive digital privacy laws that would protect the personal information of Americans by regulating the ability of all social media companies to collect, share and sell it.
Electronic Frontier Foundation Civil Liberties Director David Greene, who co-authored an amicus brief submitted to the court late last month, said the EFF is “deeply disappointed” that the court chose to look past the free speech issues in the case and instead focus on the government’s “shaky data privacy concerns.”
He noted that America’s enemies have no shortage of other ways to steal, scrape, or buy Americans’ data.
“The ban or forced sale of one social media app will do virtually nothing to protect Americans’ data privacy — only comprehensive consumer privacy legislation can achieve that goal,” Greene said in an EFF statement.
