TikTok Plans to Shut Down Its Platform in the US This Sunday Because of US Government Ban

 

TikTok plans to shut down its US operations on Sunday (Jan. 19) when the federal ban is enforced, unless the ban is suspended at the last minute, sources said on Wednesday (Jan. 15).

 

US President-elect Donald Trump was thinking about issuing an executive order to suspend the ban for 60 to 90 days, The Washington Post reported. The newspaper did not specify how Trump could legally do so. Trump will officially take office the day after the ban initiates (January 20th).

 

Trump's incoming national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said to Fox News on Wednesday that they would find a way to both protect people's data and remain TikTok.

 

A White House agent told Reuters on Wednesday that President Biden did not intend to intervene in the ban, adding that Biden cannot legally intervene if ByteDance has no plans to divest TikTok.

 

The law signed by President Biden in April 2024 will prohibit Americans from downloading TikTok on Apple $AAPL or Google $GOOGL app stores if Chinese parent ByteDance fails to sell TikTok to an American company. The law also prohibits US firms from offering TikTok distributing, maintaining, or updating services.

 

ByteDance said in December that the US TikTok ban could forbid users in many other countries from using the platform because American service providers would no longer be able to provide the platform for global users after Sunday.

 

By closing TikTok, ByteDance tried to protect its service providers from legal liability and make its operations easier to recover if Trump chooses to cancel any ban, according to sources. ByteDance also plans to offer TikTok users the option to download all their data so they can reserve their personal information, the sources said.

 

TikTok and ByteDance have at least requested to delay the law enforcement, saying the ban violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects the government from abridging free speech. On Wednesday, Senator Ed Markey tried to extend the deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok. However, the attempt was vetoed by Senator Tom Cotton.