OAN Staff Abril Elfi
12:30 PM – Wednesday, January 15, 2025
TikTok plans to shut down its application for all United States users on Sunday, unless the Supreme Court intervenes by moving to block it.
According to a report by The Information outlet, U.S. users who try to access the app will be greeted with a pop-up message directing them to a website with details about the ban. They will also be given the option to download their accumulated data from the app.
However, the company’s strategy surpasses the law’s requirements, which mandates that app store operators like Google and Apple cease permitting TikTok downloads, while still permitting users who already have the program installed on their phones to continue using it.
One of the sources claimed that shutting down such services does not require longer planning, noting that most operations have been continuing as usual as of this week. If the ban is reversed for any reason later on, TikTok reps said that they would be able to restore service for U.S. users in a relatively short time.
TikTok representatives have warned that the company will shut the social media platform down in the U.S. by January 19th, unless the Supreme Court rules against the order or delays the date that ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, is forced to sell the platform.
The Biden administration previously ordered Chinese ByteDance to sell TikTok, which has around 170 million U.S.-based users, due to “national security” reasons.
The law was first signed by President Joe Biden on April 24th, 2024. It was known as the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” making it unlawful for an entity to distribute, maintain, or update a foreign adversary-controlled application.
The Biden administration’s concerns reportedly stem from the massive amount of data that the Chinese app gathers from its users, which could be utilized by the Chinese government to later “blackmail” U.S. citizens, nefariously using it to their advantage.
The U.S. government has also expressed concerns regarding China potentially advancing “its geopolitical interests” by potentially “sowing discord and disinformation during a crisis.”
“In response to those grave national-security threats, Congress did not impose any restriction on speech, much less one based on viewpoint or content. Instead, Congress restricted only foreign adversary control: TikTok may continue operating in the United States and presenting the same content from the same users in the same manner if its current owner executes a divestiture that frees the platform from the [People’s Republic of China’s] control,” the Justice Department stated.
On the flip side, TikTok users and content creators have argued that the ban is “unconstitutional,” claiming it violates their “right to free speech” and expression.
“Rarely if ever has the court confronted a free-speech case that matters to so many people,” wrote lawyers representing TikTok content creators and users.
TikTok added that the potential ban “will silence the speech of applicants and the many Americans who use the platform to communicate about politics, commerce, arts and other matters of public concern.”
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