TikTok said late Friday that its service would “go offline” on Sunday for its 170 million U.S. users due to a ban in the United States over fears that its Chinese ownership poses a threat to national security.
The company said in a statement that “Unfortunately, TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19” unless the Biden administration assures Apple, Google and other companies that they will not be punished for providing TikTok services in the United States.
The statement was TikTok's latest attempt to pressure the government to grant it a reprieve from a law, upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday, that would effectively ban the service from Sunday.
The law says app stores and major cloud computing providers won't be able to provide TikTok to U.S. consumers unless the company is sold by Chinese parent company ByteDance to a non-Chinese owner.
TikTok did not detail what would happen on Sunday, including whether it would voluntarily shut itself down or simply cease to operate because it would lose access to the services it needs to stay online.
The Biden administration had previously indicated that federal officials would not take immediate action against Apple, Google and the other companies covered by the law.
President Biden signed the TikTok ban bill into law in April after it passed Congress with bipartisan support. Lawmakers said Beijing could pressure ByteDance to extract sensitive data about US users or influence TikTok content to serve the interests of the Chinese government.
TikTok has said the Chinese government has no role in the company and that it has spent billions of dollars to address U.S. security concerns. ByteDance is headquartered in Beijing and is under Chinese control.
On Friday, the Supreme Court accepted the government's national security reasons for the law, with the majority opinion pointing to “TikTok's size and susceptibility to surveillance by foreign adversaries, along with the vast amounts of sensitive data the platform collects.”
Lisa Monaco, deputy attorney general, said in a statement after the Supreme Court ruling that the trial would play out “over time.” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said enforcing the law would be a job for the new Trump administration, which takes office on Monday.
TikTok said these comments were not enough to convince other companies that they would not be running afoul of the law if they continued to distribute and maintain the app. These companies could face fines of up to $5,000 for each TikTok user who uses the app in the United States after the ban takes effect.
“The statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and certainty to the service providers essential to maintaining the availability of TikTok for more than 170 million Americans,” the company said.
The loss of that user base would be significant, but not the largest TikTok has suffered. In 2020, it was banned in India, where it had 200 million users. As in the United States, authorities in India have cited national security concerns for their decision against TikTok.
President-elect Donald J. Trump has expressed support for TikTok, but it is unclear how his administration will proceed on the issue. He said on social media that the Supreme Court's ruling must be respected.
“My decision on TikTok will be made in the not-too-distant future,” Mr. Trump said, “but I need time to assess the situation.”
