The future of TikTok hangs in the balance ahead of its pending US ban tomorrow (January 19).
Last year, President Biden vowed to ban the app in America because it was alleged that the popular video sharing platform poses ‘a national-security threat of immense depth and scale’, due to its parent company ByteDance.
The Chinese company was then told that it would have to sell TikTok for users in the States to continue accessing the app — which is said to be used by 170 million Americans.
Adding an additional blow to TikTok’s already bleak-looking feature in the US, the country’s Supreme Court upheld its ruling yesterday (January 17) of banning the app should a sale not take place before tomorrow.
As to what will happen to the app should the ban go through, TikTok will simply ‘go dark’.
The company said in a statement, as per Mail Online: “Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19.”
While the Supreme Court upheld its ruling, the Biden Administration has backtracked on its plans.
A US official, who spoke out on the basis of remaining anonymous, said that Biden wants to leave the decision up to president-elect Donald Trump, who will be sworn into office on Monday (January 20).
And Trump and his advisors have already revealed the upcoming president’s intentions of saving the app.
Congressman and Florida Republican Mike Waltz said in recent days: “We will put measures in place to keep TikTok from going dark.”
He further noted that TikTok is eligible for a 90-day extension if ByteDance show some progress towards a potential sale, BBC News reported.
Waltz said that this ‘buys President Trump time to keep TikTok going’.
In regards to users’ thoughts of banning TikTok, there have been protests about saving the app.
There’s also been online petitions about saving it, with one amassing over 350,000 signatures as of Thursday (January 16), said Newsweek.
Part of the petition read: “We petition that the United States government work with TikTok and its parent company ByteDance to solve their concerns without taking away an app that provides so much enjoyment, education, and community for millions of Americans.
“We must act now to let our politicians know that they cannot and should not control what we can see, hear, and share.”
