TikTok says it will ‘go dark’ if US government does not intervene

TikTok said it will be forced to “shut down” in the US on Sunday unless the government intervenes before the ban goes into effect.

The White House and Justice Department “failed to provide necessary clarity and assurance to service providers that are integral to maintaining the availability of TikTok,” she said in a statement late Friday.

She said that unless the government intervenes immediately to ensure the video app is not penalized for violating the impending ban, it will “be forced to shut down the app on January 19.”

Below is the statement Earlier Supreme Court ruling regarding Friday which backed a law that would ban the app in the United States unless its parent company, China-based ByteDance, sells the platform by Sunday.

The law, passed in April last year, stipulates that ByteDance must sell the US version of the platform to a neutral party to avoid a total ban.

TikTok has challenged the law, arguing that it violates free speech protections for its 170 million users in the country.

But the Supreme Court ruling means the US version of the app will be removed from app stores and web hosting services unless a buyer is found in the coming days.

It was believed that the ban would not affect TikTok users who have already downloaded the app on their phones.

But since updates will not be available once the ban goes into effect, the app will eventually deteriorate and become unusable over time.

TikTok’s new statement on Friday, However, he points out that it may become immediately unavailable to all existing users as well as those seeking to download it.

Influencers and content creators post videos on the app to bid farewell to their followers before the impending ban.

One of the creators, Nicole Bloomgarden, He told the BBC Not being on TikTok would take a huge pay cut, while another, Erika Thompson, said educational content on the platform would be the “biggest loss” to the community.

Some users have announced where their content will be available for viewing next, including Chinese video app Red Note, which US users have had little use of so far.

President Joe Biden’s term is set to end on Monday, and Donald Trump is scheduled to be sworn in as the next president that day. The White House said earlier that it would fall to the next president to enforce the law.

Trump indicated that he is against the ban, after initially supporting the move. “My decision on TikTok will be made in the not-too-distant future, but I should have time to review the situation,” he said on Friday.

He also revealed that he spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping and discussed TikTok with him, among other issues.

In December, Trump said he liked the app because it helped him attract young voters in the 2024 election.

Trump’s comments represent a radical shift from his position in his first term as president when he aimed to enact a similar ban through executive order.

ByteDance has pledged not to sell TikTok and said it plans to shut down the app’s US operations on Sunday unless there is a reprieve.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers voted to ban the video-sharing app last year, over concerns about its links to the Chinese government. TikTok has repeatedly stated that it does not share information with Beijing.

The potential ban comes at a time of growing concern in the United States about Chinese espionage.

Cybersecurity companies have suggested that the app is capable of collecting user data beyond what they look at on TikTok.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said that authoritarian regimes should not have “unfettered access” to Americans’ data, and that the decision prevented China from “weaponizing TikTok to undermine US national security.”

China enacted a law in 2017 requiring Chinese citizens living abroad to cooperate with its intelligence services.

But Beijing denied that it was putting pressure on companies to collect information on their behalf and criticized the ban. TikTok has repeatedly stressed that it was not asked for its data.

The app said the law endangers freedom of expression and will harm its users, advertisers, content creators and employees. TikTok has 7,000 US employees.

April 24, 2024: Biden signed a bipartisan TikTok bill, which gives its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, six months to sell its controlling stake or be banned in the United States.

May 7, 2024: TikTok has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the law, calling it an “extraordinary interference with free speech rights.”

August 2, 2024: The US government files a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the social media company of illegally collecting children’s data and failing to respond when parents tried to delete their children’s accounts.

December 6, 2024: A federal appeals court rejected TikTok’s attempt to overturn a law requiring it to be banned or sold in the United States starting in early 2025.

December 27, 2024: President-elect Donald Trump is asking the US Supreme Court to postpone the upcoming ban while he works on a “political solution.”

January 10, 2025: The nine Supreme Court justices are hearing from lawyers representing TikTok and its creators that a ban would be a violation of free speech protections for the platform’s more than 170 million users in the United States.

January 17, 2025: The US Supreme Court has upheld a law that could lead to a TikTok ban within days over national security concerns.

January 19, 2025: Deadline for TikTok to sell its stake in the US or face a ban. TikTok has indicated that it will “go dark” on this day.