TikTok plans to shut down in the US on Sunday: reports

TikTok is reportedly preparing to shut down Americans’ access to the popular video app this weekend, barring a last-minute withdrawal or intervention from… supreme court.

Multiple outlets have reported on TikTok, which is owned by a company China-based ByteDanceAmazon is preparing plans to shut down US operations “immediately” on Sunday, the day the company is required to close due to a law passed by Congress last year.

The law gives TikTok nine months to either divest from ByteDance or remove it from its US headquarters App stores And hosting services. In theory, users who have downloaded TikTok will still be able to use the app, except that the law also prohibits US companies starting Sunday from providing services to enable its distribution, maintenance or updating.

The US Supreme Court is deciding whether to uphold the law and allow TikTok to be banned on Sunday, strike down the law or pause it to give the court more time to decide.

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The Washington Post reported that President-elect Trump, whose term begins one day after the start of the ban, is considering issuing an executive order to suspend implementation of the lockdown for 60 to 90 days.

“TikTok itself is a great platform,” Trump’s incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News Wednesday. “We’ll find a way to preserve it while protecting people’s data.”

The New York Times separately reported that TikTok’s CEO received an invitation to attend the president-elect’s inauguration and sit in a “position of honor.”

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A White House official told Reuters on Wednesday that President Biden has no plans to intervene to block the ban in his final days in office if the Supreme Court fails to act, and added that Biden is legally unable to intervene in the absence of a credible plan from ByteDance to divest TikTok.

However, an NBC report later said that the Biden administration was considering options to keep the social media platform available to users after Sunday in an attempt to delay the decision for Trump, who will be inaugurated on Monday.

“Americans should not expect to suddenly see a TikTok ban on Sunday,” an administration official told the network.

If it is banned, TikTok says users who try to open the app will see a pop-up message directing them to a website with information about the ban, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters, requesting anonymity because the matter is not public.

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“It’s getting dark. Basically, the platform is shutting down,” TikTok lawyer Noel Francisco told the Supreme Court last week.

The company also plans to give users the option to download all their data so they can register their personal information, the sources said.

Reuters contributed to this report.