tiktok There were nervous fears across the US on Saturday as an impending federal ban threatened to end access to the Chinese-owned app that attracts nearly half of Americans, powers small businesses and shapes online culture.
The company said late Friday that the United States would go dark on Sunday unless President Joe Biden’s administration assures companies like Apple and Google that they will not face enforcement action if the ban takes effect.
The ban would be implemented under a law signed by President Joe Biden in April and would mark the first U.S. shutdown of a major social media app — including TikTok, which has about 170 million domestic users and a projected $20 billion in revenue in 2025. .
The platform has until Sunday to sever ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or shut down its US operations to resolve concerns it poses a national security threat.
Supreme Court justices upheld the ban in a unanimous decision on Friday, and a White House statement suggested Biden would not take any action to defund TikTok before the deadline.
Without a decision by Biden to formally impose the 90-day delay in the deadline, companies that provide services to TikTok or host the app could face legal liability. It is not clear that
TikTok’s business partners, including Apple, Alphabet’s Google and Oracle, will continue doing business with it ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
Uncertainty over the app’s future had prompted users – mostly young people – to turn to alternatives, including China-based RedNote. Rivals Meta (META.O), opens new tab and Snap (SNAP.N), opens new tab, also saw their shares rise this month before the ban, as investors bet on an influx of users and advertising dollars. Had planted.
Marketing firms relying on TikTok have rushed to draw up contingency plans this week, in what one executive described as a “hairs on fire” moment after months of conventional wisdom that the app should be turned on its head. A solution will be found to keep it.
There have been signs that TikTok could make a comeback under incoming US President Donald Trump, who wants a “political solution” to the issue and last month urged the Supreme Court to block implementation of the ban.
Trump said on Friday that the decision on the future of the TikTok app would be up to him, but he did not provide any details on what action he would take. Media reports said he was considering an executive order that would suspend enforcement of the TikTok sell-or-ban law for 60 to 90 days.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to attend the US presidential inauguration on January 20 and sit among the high-profile guests invited by Trump, a source told Reuters.
Suitors, including former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, have expressed interest in the fast-growing business, which analysts estimate could be worth as much as $50 billion. Media reports say Beijing has also held talks about selling TikTok’s US operations to billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk, although the company has denied this.
Privately held ByteDance is about 60% owned by institutional investors such as BlackRock and General Atlantic, while its founders and employees each hold 20%. It has more than 7,000 employees in the US
