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TikTok Says It Will Go Dark On Sunday In U.S. Unless Its Given ‘Definitive’ Assurances

TikTok confirmed that it plans to go dark on Sunday unless the Biden administration and the Department of Justice provide more clarity regarding the ban, which goes into effect that same day.

“The 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 company said Friday evening in a post on X.

“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” the statement continued.

Last year, Congress required that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, sell the app to an American company by January 19, a day before Trump’s inauguration. The official said the outgoing Biden administration was leaving the decision to implement the law — and the potential enforcement of the ban — to Trump.

Some U.S. lawmakers have suggested they want to delay the ban to allow the app to have more time to find a U.S. buyer.

The announcement comes after the Supreme Court upheld a law set to ban the popular social media app TikTok in less than 48 hours.

The court’s ruling was unanimous, with liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor and conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch writing concurring opinions.

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Here’s how the law works: TikTok is not required to go dark on January 19. The app stores along with the internet hosting services that could be fined if they keep providing their services to TikTok. The law gives the Justice Department the power to pursue fines of up to $5,000 per user, a massive liability due to the app’s popularity with younger Americans.

The outgoing Biden administration said Friday that it was leaving enforcement of the TikTok ban in the hands of the Trump administration.

Stephen Anderson
Written By

Stephen Anderson is FWRD AXIS' Co-founder and Chief Political Reporter based in the United States.

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