tiktok said The service said late Friday it would “go dark” for its 170 million American users on Sunday because of sanctions in the United States that its Chinese ownership poses a national security threat.
The company said in a statement that “TikTok will unfortunately be forced to go dark on January 19” unless the Biden administration assures Apple, Google and other companies that TikTok in the U.S. They will not be penalized for providing services.
The statement was TikTok’s latest attempt to pressure the administration to exempt it from a law, Upheld by the Supreme Court On Friday, it will effectively ban its services from Sunday
The law says app stores and major cloud computing providers cannot offer TikTok to US customers unless the company sells its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to a non-Chinese owner.
TikTok has not detailed what will happen on Sunday, including whether it will shut itself down voluntarily or simply stop working because it will lose access to the services it needs to stay online.
The Biden administration has previously indicated that federal officials will not immediately take action against Apple, Google and other companies under the law.
President Biden signed the TikTok ban bill into law in April after Congress passed it Bipartisan support. Lawmakers said Beijing could pressure ByteDance to release sensitive data on American users or influence TikTok content to serve Chinese government interests.
TikTok has said the Chinese government has no role in the company and that it has spent billions of dollars to address US security concerns. ByteDance is headquartered in Beijing and is controlled by China.
On Friday, the Supreme Court accepted the government’s national security rationale for the law, with a majority opinion citing “TikTok’s scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, along with the vast amount of sensitive data the platform collects.”
Lisa Monaco, the deputy attorney general, said in a statement after the Supreme Court’s ruling that the process would take effect “over time.” White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said enforcement of the law would fall to the incoming Trump administration, which takes office Monday.
TikTok said those comments were not enough to convince other companies that they would not be violating the law if they continued to distribute and maintain the app. The companies could face fines of up to $5,000 for each TikTok user who accesses the app inside the United States after the ban goes into effect.
“The statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Justice Department fail to provide the clarity and reassurance needed by service providers integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to more than 170 million Americans,” the company said.
The loss of that user base will be significant, but the largest TikTok has not suffered. In 2020, it was Banned in Indiawhere it had 200 million users. Like the US, authorities in India cited national security concerns for their decision against TikTok.
President-elect Donald J. Trump has signaled his support for TikTok, but it’s unclear how his administration will proceed on the matter. He said on social media that the Supreme Court verdict must be respected.
“My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future,” Mr. Trump said, “but I must have time to review the situation.”
