The clock is officially ticking for TikTok in the United States.
On January 10, lawyers for the social media app tried to convince US Supreme Court Justices to either scrap or temporarily block a law that could see TikTok banned in the market if its Chinese owner ByteDance doesn’t sell the app in the US by January 19.
On January 17, the Supreme Court announced its decision: The law will be upheld, which means TikTok’s US operations must be divested to avoid being shut down in the market – where it counts over 170 million users.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which will take effect on January 19, targets apps owned by companies in countries considered security threats by the US. President Joe Biden signed the law in April 2024.
TikTok is named as a concern under the law and US lawmakers warn that the app could share sensitive user data with the Chinese government. TikTok denies these claims.
US lawmakers warned Google and Apple last month that they must prepare to remove TikTok from their app stores by January 19, 2025, if its China-headquartered parent company ByteDance hasn’t sold the platform by that date.
While existing users may still use the app for a time, it may eventually become nonfunctional in the market.
The Information reported that TikTok is preparing for an immediate shutdown in the US on Sunday (January 19), the day the law comes into effect.
President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly mulling an executive order to suspend the law temporarily.
The proposed suspension – to last 60 or 90 days – would give the Trump administration time to find a buyer for TikTok’s US operations, or to find another solution, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday (January 15).
Trump’s inauguration is scheduled to take place on January 20.
