TikTok is reportedly preparing to shut down Americans’ access to the popular video app this weekend, barring a last-minute divestiture or intervention from the Supreme Court.
Multiple outlets reported TikTok, which is owned by China-based ByteDance, is readying plans to “immediately” pull the plug on U.S. operations on Sunday, the day the company is required to shut down due to a law passed by Congress last year.
The law granted TikTok nine months to either divest from ByteDance or be removed from U.S.-based app stores and hosting services. Users who have downloaded TikTok would theoretically still be able to use the app, except that the law also bars U.S. companies starting Sunday from providing services to enable the distribution, maintenance or updating of it.
The U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether to uphold the law and allow TikTok to be banned on Sunday, overturn the law or pause the law to give the court more time to make a decision.
TIKTOK CEO TO ATTEND INAUGURATION WITH FRONT ROW SEAT AT TRUMP’S INVITE
The Washington Post reported President-elect Trump, whose term begins a day after a ban would start, is considering issuing an executive order to suspend enforcement of a shutdown for 60 to 90 days.
“TikTok itself is a fantastic platform,” Trump’s incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News on Wednesday. “We’re going to find a way to preserve it but protect people’s data.”
The New York Times separately reported that TikTok’s CEO has been extended an invitation to attend the president-elect’s inaugration and sit in “a position of honor.”
POTENTIAL TIKTOK BAN: WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA APPS ARE POPPING UP IN APP STORES
A White House official told Reuters on Wednesday that President Biden has no plans to intervene to block a ban in his final days in office if the Supreme Court fails to act and added that Biden is legally unable to intervene absent a credible plan from ByteDance to divest TikTok.
However, an NBC report later said the Biden administration has been weighing options to keep the social media platform available to users beyond Sunday in a bid to defer a decision to Trump, who will be inaugurated Monday.
“Americans shouldn’t expect to see TikTok suddenly banned on Sunday,” an administration official told the network.
If it is banned, TikTok says users attempting to open the app will see a pop-up message directing them to a website with information about the ban, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters, requesting anonymity because the matter is not public.
“We go dark. Essentially, the platform shuts down,” TikTok lawyer Noel Francisco told the Supreme Court last week.
The company also plans to give users an option to download all their data so that they can take a record of their personal information, the sources said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
