TikTok may go dark on January 19 as US Supreme Court upholds sale law

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to rescue TikTok from a law that required the popular short-video app to be sold by its Chinese parent company ByteDance or be banned from January 19, 2025 in the United States on national security grounds. It comes as a major blow to a platform used by nearly half of all Americans. The justices affirmed a lower court’s decision that had upheld the measure after it was challenged by TikTok, ByteDance and some of the app’s users.

TikTok issues statement

TikTok, in its statement has also said that it will have to “go dark” this weekend unless the outgoing Biden administration assures the company it won’t enforce a shutdown of the popular app.

TikTok released a statement late Friday saying “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.”

The Supreme Court in its ruling held that the risk to national security posed by TikTok’s ties to China overcomes concerns about limiting speech by the app or its 170 million users in the United States.

The decision comes against the backdrop of unusual political agitation by President-elect Donald Trump, who vowed that he could negotiate a solution, and the administration of President Joe Biden, which has signaled it won’t enforce the law beginning Sunday, his final full day in office.

“TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement, noting that actions to implement the law will fall to the new administration.