It remains unclear whether TikTok will still be available in the United States on Sunday, with the company claiming that President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration needs to offer “definitive” assurances that it won’t enforce a ban.
On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld a law that would effectively ban TikTok in the US if the app’s owner ByteDance doesn’t sell it. With a sale unlikely to go through in the two days before the law took effect (and ByteDance repeatedly insisting that it won’t sell), it seemed TikTok would disappear from app stores on Sunday, January 19.
Reports have suggested that it could also stop working entirely since US companies would be banned from providing services that support the distribution, maintenance, or updating of the app.
January 19 is also, however, one day before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, and the incoming president had asked the Supreme Court to delay the ban so that he could “negotiate a resolution to save the platform.”
While the court did not agree to a delay, the Biden administration also seemed inclined to leave TikTok’s fate in Trump’s hands. In a statement Friday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden’s position hasn’t changed — namely, that “TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress.” However, given the timing, Jean-Pierre said “actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration.”
Similarly, a Justice Department statement from Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco suggested that “the next phase of this effort — implementing and ensuring compliance with the law after it goes into effect on January 19 — will be a process that plays out over time.”
TikTok, however, responded with a statement of its own suggesting that this wasn’t enough for the company and other service providers to continue offering the TikTok app. In TikTok’s view, Biden and the DOJ “failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans.”
The company added, “Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19.”
Following TikTok’s comments, Jean-Pierre described the company’s statement as “a stunt,” and said the administration sees “no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday.”
This post has been updated to reflect additional comment from the White House, as well as reports that TikTok could be shut down entirely in the US, not simply removed from app stores.
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