The looming ban on TikTok is inching closer. The app’s availability in the U.S. hinges on a Supreme Court decision.
The federal ban would prevent the app from being downloaded from Apple or Google app stores. it also will prevent web hosting services from storing or distributing the app in the U.S., Variety explained. Existing users would still be able to use it for a while.
However, The Information and Reuters reported that the company may shut down the entire platform in the U.S., blocking it for everyone in the country.
Sources told Reuters that if TikTok pulls the plug in the U.S., users will get a pop-up message that takes them to a website explaining the ban. Users will also get an option to download their data if they want to do so, Reuters reported.
If it shuts down this weekend, it could always come back in the future.
President Joe Biden signed legislation requiring TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, which is based in China, to sell its U.S. assets by Jan. 19, 2025, or be banned in the country, CNN reported. At issue is that TikTok functions under the Chinese Communist Party and is considered a national security threat, government officials said, according to Variety. Some believe that China uses the app to spy on Americans or to spread propaganda.
ByteDance and TikTok have tried to delay the ban, partially saying that banning the app goes against the First Amendment protection of free speech.
Support of the ban has dwindled among the public according to a Pew Research article updated last month. It said that about 50% of those asked supported the ban in March 2023, that percentage fell to 32% this past summer. Only 28% said they opposed the ban while 39% were not sure. At the time, about half of those asked thought the ban was unlikely.
ByteDance has said it didn’t want to sell the app, but there have been rumors reported by Bloomberg and others, that it could be sold to Elon Musk, who also owns X, formerly known as Twitter. TikTok called the rumors of a sale to Musk “pure fiction,” Variety reported.
It is also not clear if China would allow for the sale of TikTok because it would be a technology export, according to Variety.
President-elect Donald Trump, who initially supported the ban, has reversed course and said he no longer does, going so far to petition the Supreme Court to stay the law so his administration can take up the negotiations to keep the app available. His administration could also not enforce the ban since the Department of Justice will be the agency policing the use of TikTok in the U.S., CNN said.
TikTok has 170 million users in the U.S., CNN reported.
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