TikTok is widely expected to go dark on Sunday – leaving more than 170 million American users — many of them children — unable to access their favorite video-sharing app.
Here’s what to know about the looming ban and what comes next for TikTok.
When is TikTok getting banned?
The clock on TikTok runs out Sunday and company executives are reportedly planning to shut the app down soon after midnight. Users will be redirected to a website with details about Congress’s law and why the app went offline.
Why is TikTok shutting down?
Since TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance decided against selling the app to a US buyer as demanded by the divestment law signed by President Joe Biden in April, a Supreme Court intervention was their last hope of maintain control. But the high court on Friday ruled against TikTok, forcing the Google and App stores to prevent any more downloads of the app come Sunday.
Can I still use TikTok if I already downloaded it?
If TikTok doesn’t pull the plug, then current users will still be able to use the app for some time, but it will not receive any software updates or support from developers and would gradually degrade until it wasn’t usable.
Should TikTok choose the nuclear option as widely expected, then the app will go offline for everyone on Sunday — even those who already have it on their phones.
Will President-elect Trump ‘save’ TikTok?
Trump, who once supported a ban, has vowed to find a political solution that will keep the app active in the US. He is reportedly considering an executive order that would extend the divestment window by 60 to 90 days while he works on securing a deal.
Will TikTok be sold?
That remains to be seen. Both TikTok and ByteDance has insisted that the app is not for sale, while Chinese government officials have vowed to oppose any forced sale.
However, several US investors have come forward to express interest in buying TikTok and rebuilding its recommendation algorithm from scratch on US soil to ensure it is safe. The list includes billionaire Frank McCourt and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary, who are partnering on a bid to buy the app.
Others who have reportedly expressed interest at various points in the last several months include former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and ex-Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.
What does Congress’s law actually do?
The law passed by Congress last April required TikTok parent ByteDance to divest its stake in the company by Jan. 19 or face a total US ban. The law also allowed President Biden to extend the window by 90 days if there were signs of progress toward a deal, but that never happened.
What does ‘uphold’ mean?
In this case, the Supreme Court rejected TikTok’s argument that the divestment law was a violation of the First Amendment and instead sided with the Justice Department, which laid out the national security risks associated with the app’s Chinese ownership.
How is TikTok a security risk?
US lawmakers and the Justice Department said that TikTok effectively functioned as a spying and propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party. Critics allege that Chinese officials are capable of secretly manipulating content via TikTok’s recommendation algorithm to influence public opinion and conduct mass data collection such as location-tracking on American users.
Additional evidence included in the DOJ’s argument against TikTok remains redacted. TikTok has vehemently denied wrongdoing.
“It’s farcical to suggest that with this two billion lines of code – 40 times as big as the entire Windows operating system, changed 1,000 times every day – that somehow we’re going to detect that they’ve changed it,” DOJ attorney Daniel Tenny said at a September hearing.
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