TikTok is preparing to go dark for U.S. users this Sunday if the Supreme Court does not grant its emergency appeal to halt a law that will ban the app unless Chinese parent ByteDance divests its stake, according to reports.
TikTok is in danger of being banned in the U.S. under a federal law set to take effect Sunday, Jan. 19, unless the Supreme Court grants an injunction blocking it. On Wednesday, the court did not issue a ruling in the matter.
At this point, TikTok plans an “immediate” shut down of the app for U.S. users unless the Supreme Court grants a reprieve, The Information reported, citing anonymous sources. Reuters also reported on TikTok’s preparations to suspend service for American users in the absence of a favorable Supreme Court ruling.
If the ban goes into effect Jan. 19, TikTok users will see a pop-up message in the app directing them to a website with information about the ban, per the Reuters report. In addition, TikTok plans to give users an option to download their data, according to the report.
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TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a message sent to staffers Tuesday, TikTok’s HR chief said U.S. employees will continue to have their jobs even if the app ban goes into effect, as reported by the New York Times. “Your employment, pay and benefits are secure, and our offices will remain open, even if this situation hasn’t been resolved before the January 19 deadline,” TikTok global head of HR Nicky Raghavan said in the message. “The bill is not written in a way that impacts the entities through which you are employed, only the U.S. user experience.”
On Friday, Jan. 10, the Supreme Court heard arguments in TikTok’s emergency appeal seeking to block the law, with TikTok and ByteDance arguing that the law violates First Amendment rights of its 170 million U.S. users. The justices seemed to lean toward being more receptive to the government’s position — that TikTok represents a national security threat, as it falls under the jurisdiction of the Chinese Communist Party.
ByteDance has said 60% of its ownership is represented by “global institutional investors” including Blackrock, General Atlantic and Susquehanna International Group. Chinese officials have been exploring the potential for ByteDance to sell its stake to tech mogul Elon Musk, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal reported this week. A TikTok spokesperson called that “pure fiction.”
The law passed Congress with bipartisan support and was signed by President Biden in April 2024. U.S. lawmakers have expressed concern about TikTok’s Chinese ownership, suggesting the Chinese communist regime could use the app to spy on Americans or use it to spread pro-China propaganda. The law, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, prohibits Apple and Google’s app stores and web hosting services from distributing TikTok in the U.S. unless ByteDance sells its ownership stake in the app to any party located in a country that is not designated a “foreign adversary” of the United States.