TikTok has said it will be forced to “go dark” in the US on Sunday unless the government intervenes before a ban takes effect.
In a statement late on Friday, it said the White House and the Department of Justice had “failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability”.
It said that unless the government immediately stepped in to assure the video app it would not be punished for violating the looming ban, it would be “forced to go dark on January 19”.
The statement follows a Supreme Court ruling earlier on Friday which upheld a law banning the app in the US unless its China-based parent company, ByteDance, sells the platform by Sunday.
Passed in April last year, the law says ByteDance must sell the US version of the platform to a neutral party to avert an outright ban.
TikTok challenged the law, arguing it violates free speech protections for its 170 million users in the country.
But the Supreme Court’s 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 had been thought the ban would not impact TikTok users who already have the app downloaded on their phones.
But given updates would become unavailable once the ban comes into force, the app would eventually degrade and become unusable over time.
TikTok’s fresh statement on Friday, however, suggests it may immediately become unavailable to all existing users as well as those seeking to download it.
Influencers and content creators have been posting videos on the app bidding farewell to their followers ahead of the impending ban.
How did we get here?
24 April 2024: Biden signs bipartisan TikTok bill, which gave Chinese parent company, ByteDance, six months to sell its controlling stake or be blocked in the US.
7 May 2024: TikTok files a lawsuit aiming to block the law, calling it an “extraordinary intrusion on free speech rights”.
2 August 2024: The US government files a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the social media company of unlawfully collecting children’s data and failing to respond when parents tried to delete their children’s accounts.
6 December 2024: TikTok’s bid to overturn a law which would see it banned or sold in the US from early 2025 is rejected by a federal appeals court.
27 December 2024: President-elect Donald Trump asks the US Supreme Court to delay the upcoming ban while he works on a “political resolution”.
10 January 2025: The Supreme Court’s nine justices hear from lawyers representing TikTok and content creators that the ban would be a violation of free speech protections for the platform’s more than 170 million users in the US.
17 January 2025: The US Supreme Court upholds the law that could lead to TikTok being banned within days over national security concerns.
19 January 2025: The deadline for TikTok to sell its US stake or face a ban. TikTok has indicated it will “go dark” on this day.
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