TikTok will reportedly shut down its US app entirely on Sunday

Pigs, you better get your last taste before it’s too late. TikTok is reportedly planning to shut down its app to US users on Sunday, as long as a Biden administration law forces the company to sell itself He didn’t stop By the Supreme Court or Congress.

Information He is Preparing reports TikTok made the decision to turn off the lights on January 19 instead of slowing down as some expected.

Technically, TikTok can continue to work for users who have already installed the app. It won’t be illegal to use TikTok, but US providers won’t be allowed to work with the social media company. This means that Apple and Google will have to remove TikTok from their app stores, and cloud hosting providers like Oracle — which has tried to help TikTok isolate its US data from employees based in China — will have to stop operating their servers.

TikTok has not been banned in other parts of the world, and the company told US employees in a recent memo that after the ban they would do so. They still have jobs. After all, TikTok is hugely popular all over the world, not just in America, and it will continue to operate as usual outside the country. It could theoretically continue to run the app for US users from foreign infrastructure. But again, it will be difficult for TikTok to survive in the US when it is not available for downloads or updates.

However, there were some people who believed that the app would continue to work until it was too old to work. But according to InformationTikTok chose to go out as a martyr, allowing users to know the consequences of the ban immediately. The pop-up in the app will reportedly give users more information about why the app they know and love has stopped working.

Gizmodo reached out to TikTok for comment but did not receive a response.

A complete ban on TikTok may be a positive thing if you believe the research that suggests social media is harmful to teens. But another social media giant is likely to take its place, with YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat all having their own competing versions of short-form video products. In recent days, some TikTok users have protested the impending ban by subscribing to a similar Chinese short video app called rednotewhich was already a source of Some amazing content— which means the TikTok ban likely won’t stop Zoomers from frying their brains with mindless scrolling. They will do it somewhere else.

Perhaps one of the funniest consequences of the TikTok ban is that Zoomers spread online permanently Longing for their “Chinese spy” In reference to the claim that China is using TikTok to monitor Americans.

Holy cow, I just realized this app was responsible for the 2024 Video of the Year pic.twitter.com/NPdBCc3sSO

– King of the Mice 🐀 (@MikeIsaac) January 14, 2025

TikTok has not been banned, but the US government wants to change ownership, fearing that Chinese parent ByteDance would be forced to comply with demands there to influence the content Americans see, or hand over private data. If TikTok ends up being sold to a new owner, like Elon Musk, it could continue to operate. Back in 2020, the US government similarly forced the Chinese owner of gay dating app Grindr to sell the app to US investors on national security grounds. TikTok has repeatedly insisted that it will not sell to a new owner, saying in part that such a move to separate it from the global app would be technically too complex. The Chinese government will likely not be happy about this either.

TikTok has long denied that the Chinese government has any control over its operations, but has been unable to allay the concerns of US officials. Recent reports indicate that the Chinese government is considering a Selling TikTok to Elon MuskWhich undermines the idea that the Chinese government has no influence over it. President-elect Donald Trump has appealed to the Supreme Court to delay the ban so he can take office and negotiate a deal, and influential people are concerned that the ban could significantly hurt their incomes. For its part, TikTok has forcefully said it would rather close the app to Americans than sell it; You may eventually choose to give up.

Ironically, the Biden administration allowed some State Department employees to do so Keep using TikTok For the purposes of international diplomacy. The ban is for you, not me