February 9, 2025

TikTok says it plans to go offline on Sunday, January nineteenth if the Biden administration doesn’t intervene.

The corporate confirms earlier reporting that will probably be “forced to go dark” on the nineteenth except the outgoing administration supplies a “definitive assertion” assuring its “most important service suppliers” that they gained’t be held accountable for breaking the legislation. These suppliers embody Apple and Google, which collectively distribute TikTok by their app shops, and its internet hosting companions, which embody Amazon and Oracle.

TikTok’s assertion follows Friday’s Supreme Court docket ruling that upheld the legislation banning the app except its Chinese language guardian firm, ByteDance, divests its possession stake. Shortly after the Supreme Court docket’s ruling, TikTok CEO Shou Chew appealed to President-elect Donald Trump in a video however didn’t give any indication of what may occur when the legislation goes into impact at midnight on Saturday.

Sadly for TikTok, the White Home has already made clear that it intends to punt the destiny of the app to Donald Trump, who has promised to put it aside and is ready to be sworn in as president on Monday, January twentieth. Trump said on Friday that he spoke with China President Xi Jinping about “balancing commerce, fentanyl, TikTok, and lots of different topics.”

“President Biden’s place on TikTok has been clear for months, together with since Congress despatched a invoice in overwhelming, bipartisan style to the President’s desk: TikTok ought to stay obtainable to People, however merely underneath American possession or different possession that addresses the nationwide safety issues recognized by Congress in growing this legislation,” the White Home said in a statement on Friday. “Given the sheer reality of timing, this Administration acknowledges that actions to implement the legislation merely should fall to the following Administration, which takes workplace on Monday.”

In the meantime, the Division of Justice, which is tasked with imposing the TikTok ban by fining its US service suppliers $5,000 per consumer with entry to the app, has signaled that it’s nonetheless behind the ban.

“Authoritarian regimes mustn’t have unfettered entry to tens of millions of People’ delicate information,” Lawyer Common Merrick Garland said on Friday. “The Court docket’s determination affirms that this Act protects the nationwide safety of the US in a fashion that’s in step with the Structure.”

Because the ban deadline will get nearer, politicians who voted for it have began flipping by arguing that ByteDance ought to have extra time to divest. In line with The New York Times, Senator Chuck Schumer advised President Biden that permitting a ban to occur would “injury his legacy.”

You’ll be able to learn TikTok’s full assertion about shutting down beneath:

The statements issued at the moment by each the Biden White Home and the Division of Justice have failed to supply the mandatory readability and assurance to the service suppliers which might be integral to sustaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million People.  

Except the Biden Administration instantly supplies a definitive assertion to fulfill probably the most important service suppliers assuring non-enforcement, sadly TikTok will probably be compelled to go darkish on January 19.