It remained unclear whether TikTok would be available in the U.S. on Sunday, with the company claiming it needed to provide “definitive” assurances that President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration would not enforce the ban. There is.
On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld a law that would effectively ban TikTok in the United States if the app’s owner, ByteDance, does not sell it. With a sale unlikely to go through in the two days before the law takes effect (and ByteDance has repeatedly said it won’t), it seemed like TikTok would disappear from app stores on Sunday, January 19th. .
According to reports, U.S. companies will be prohibited from providing services that support the distribution, maintenance, and updating of apps, which could result in them being completely disabled.
But Jan. 19 was also the day before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, and the president-elect had asked the Supreme Court to delay the ban so he could “negotiate a resolution to preserve the platform.”
Although the court did not agree to a delay, the Biden administration also appears to be willing to leave TikTok’s fate in Trump’s hands. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Friday that Biden’s position has not changed. That is, “TikTok should continue to be available to Americans, but only under American ownership or other ownership that addresses national security concerns identified by Congress.” But given the timing, Jean-Pierre said, “action to implement the law should be left to the next administration.”
Similarly, a statement from the Department of Justice from Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said, “The next phase of this effort, enforcing the law and ensuring compliance after it goes into effect on January 19, will be a slow process. “It will be,” he suggested.
However, TikTok responded with its own statement suggesting that this is not enough for it and other service providers to continue offering the TikTok app. In TikTok’s view, Biden and the Department of Justice “failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurances to service providers that are essential to making TikTok available to more than 170 million Americans.”
The company added: “Unfortunately, TikTok will be forced to cease service on January 19th unless the Biden administration immediately provides a final statement that satisfies our most critical service providers to ensure non-compliance.” added.
In response to TikTok’s comments, Jean-Pierre described the company’s statement as a “stunt” and said the administration sees no reason for TikTok or other companies to take action in the days leading up to the Trump administration’s inauguration on Monday. He said that
This post has been updated with additional comment from the White House and reports that TikTok may be shut down completely in the US, rather than simply being removed from app stores.