TikTok said it will be “forced to go dark” on Sunday, Jan. 19, unless it receives a “definitive statement” from the outgoing Biden administration that the app’s tech partners won’t be penalized under the divest-or-ban bill.
On Friday morning, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal by TikTok and parent ByteDance to halt a law that will ban the popular video app in the U.S. as of Sunday unless China-based ByteDance divests its stake in the app to a party that is 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 that are integral 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 assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19.”
The Biden administration has punted the decision about enforcing the law to President-elect Donald Trump, who said he wants to find a resolution that will keep TikTok legal in the U.S.
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“The Administration, like the rest of the country, has awaited the decision just made by the U.S. Supreme Court on the TikTok matter,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Friday after the high court’s ruling. “Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday.”
The law does not prohibit the use of the TikTok app in the U.S. 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 apps stores) and Oracle (which has an agreement to host TikTok user data in the U.S.) 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.
U.S. Deputy 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 January 19 — will be a process that plays out over time.”
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland commented, “The Court’s decision enables the Justice Department to prevent the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to undermine America’s national security. Authoritarian regimes should not have unfettered access to millions of Americans’ sensitive data. The Court’s decision affirms that this Act protects the national security of the United States in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution.”
