TikTok should “Go Hard or Go Home” in the US

TikTok

It’s either TikTok divest its U.S. operations by January 19 or face a ban. That is; “go hard or go home”.

TikTok currently has over 170 million American users and the video-sharing platform has declared that it’ll “go dark” tomorrow if Biden administration will not stop the ban in the United States. It’s a sad situation for Bytedance—the parent company of TikTok—that the Supreme Court is taking side with Biden administration and still upholding the law that could ban TikTok in the coming days.

“Unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” said the company on X, formerly Twitter. The company further emphasized that the ban can be prevent only if the Biden administration provides guarantees that Apple, Google, and other companies involved in distributing TikTok (e.g., through app stores or other services) will not face legal or regulatory consequences for doing so.

Essentially, TikTok is seeking assurances that these companies won’t be penalized for allowing its app to remain accessible in the U.S., likely due to ongoing political or legal issues surrounding the app’s operations in the country.

The statement was TikTok’s latest attempt to pressure the administration to grant it a reprieve from a law, upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday, that would effectively ban its service starting Sunday.

The Supreme Court’s ruling means that, without a sale which will remove the control of its Chinese owners, TikTok will be removed from app stores and web hosting services in the U.S., rendering it inaccessible to new users and eventually unusable for existing users due to the lack of updates.

TikTok has urged the Biden administration to provide immediate clarity to prevent the app’s shutdown. The president’s term concludes on January 20, with President-elect Donald Trump set to assume office.

The current administration has indicated that enforcing the ban will be the responsibility of the incoming administration. President-elect Trump has suggested he may seek a resolution to keep TikTok operational in the U.S., stating, “My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation.”