TikTok ban latest: App reveals shutdown plans in the US as Jan 19 deadline looms
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Supreme Court is set to review ban, and Donald Trump opposes it – but the app looks set to go dark as a deadline arrives this weekend. TikTok is just days from being banned in the US over security concerns. The app is preparing to go offline on Sunday, in line with a federal ban.
It comes after president Joe Biden ordered parent company ByteDance to sell its US operations by 19 January or be banned. ByteDance has made no public effort to find a buyer, and so the ban looks set to go into effect. The US Supreme Court could repeal the ban – but appears unlikely to, despite some pressure from politicians including president-elect Donald Trump.
The ban only requires TikTok to be removed from app stores, leaving open the possibility that it will keep working for those who have already downloaded it. But reports suggest that TikTok is planning to shut itself down totally on Sunday. Here is a great analysis, from tech analyst Gene Munster, of how Meta could win from a TikTok ban. Similar has already happened in some countries, such as India, where TikTok has been banned and its users have moved to Instagram Reels.
More than three billion people are already blocked from TikTok, which has faced scrutiny just about everywhere it operates. Here’s a look at the numbers behind the ban – and the huge impact that it could have. “Pure fiction”, says parent company ByteDance. (It has also not given any indication it will be sold to anybody else, which is a requirement of the law.).
