TikTok said it will “go dark” on Sunday, Jan. 19, unless it receives a “definitive statement” from the outgoing Biden administration that the app’s technology partners will not be penalized under the divestment or ban bill.
On Friday morning, The Supreme Court rejected TikTok and parent company ByteDance’s appeal to stop a law which will ban the popular video app in the United States starting Sunday unless China-based ByteDance divests its stake in the app to a party not located in a country deemed a “foreign adversary.”
“The statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers essential to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans,” TikTok said Friday. “Unless the Biden administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers guaranteeing non-enforcement, TikTok will unfortunately be forced to go dark on January 19.”
The Biden administration has sent the decision to uphold the law to President-elect Donald Trump, who said he wants to find a resolution that will keep TikTok legal in the United States
“The administration, like the rest of the country, has been awaiting the decision just handed down by the United States Supreme Court in the TikTok case,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Friday after the Supreme Court decision. “Given the timing itself, this administration recognizes that action to implement the law must simply fall to the next administration, which takes office on Monday.”
The law does not prohibit the use of the TikTok app in the United States. Instead, it imposes fines of $5,000 per user on companies that distribute or host the TikTok app. Tech companies like Apple and Google (which offer TikTok in their app stores) and Oracle (which has an agreement to host TikTok user data in the US) may be reluctant to risk flouting the letter of the law. Apple, Google and Oracle did not respond to requests for comment on the impending TikTok ban.
US Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco, said commenting on the Supreme Court’s decision in TikTok, et al. v. Garland, said Friday in a statement that “the next phase of this effort — implementing and ensuring compliance with the law after it goes into effect on Jan. 19 — will be a process that plays out over time.”
US Attorney General Merrick Garland commented, “The court’s decision allows the Department of Justice to prevent the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to undermine US national security. Authoritarian regimes should not have unfettered access to the sensitive data of millions of Americans. The court’s decision confirms that this Act protects the national security of the United States in a manner consistent with the Constitution.”
