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TikTok says it will ‘go dark’ if US government does not intervene

TikTok said it will be forced to “shut down” in the US on Sunday unless the government intervenes before the ban goes into effect.

“Both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice failed to provide necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining the availability of TikTok,” she said in a statement.

She said that unless the government intervenes immediately to reassure the video app that it will not be punished for violating the impending ban, it “will be forced to shut down the app on January 19.”

TikTok’s statement follows a Supreme Court ruling earlier Friday that upheld a law banning the app in the United States unless its China-based parent company, ByteDance, sells the platform by Sunday.

TikTok has challenged the law, arguing that it violates free speech protections for its 170 million users in the country.

But the Supreme Court 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 was believed that the ban would not affect TikTok users who have already downloaded the app on their phones.

But TikTok’s new statement late Friday suggests it may immediately become unavailable to all current users as well as those seeking to download it.

President Joe Biden’s term is set to end on Monday, and Donald Trump is scheduled to be sworn in as the next president that day. The White House said earlier that it would fall to the next president to enforce the law.

Trump indicated that he is against the ban, after initially supporting the move. “My decision on TikTok will be made in the not-too-distant future, but I should have time to review the situation,” he said on Friday.

ByteDance has pledged not to sell TikTok and said it plans to shut down the app’s US operations on Sunday unless there is a reprieve.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers voted to ban the video-sharing app last year, over concerns about its links to the Chinese government. TikTok has repeatedly stated that it does not share information with Beijing.

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2025-01-18 02:53:00

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