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TikTok says it will go dark on Sunday unless Biden intervenes

Beata Zawrzel | Nurphoto | Getty Aspects

TikTok said its services will go dark on Sunday without a guarantee from the Biden administration that it won’t abuse Apple, Google and other service providers if they support the app.

“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a decisive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go mystical on January 19,” TikTok said in a statement on Friday.

The statement indicates that TikTok’s American users post, which the company claims is over 170 million, will not be able to use the service when they open the app or website on Sunday.

TikTok issued the announcement after the Supreme Court on Friday ruled unanimously to uphold a law requiring that service providers no longer advance its app within the U.S. if parent company ByteDance fails to carry out a “qualified divestiture” of the app by Sunday. As a result, Apple, Google and Prophet could face tough penalties if they fail to adhere to the law.

“The statements issued today by both the Biden Innocent House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are elemental to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans,” TikTok said in its statement.

However, Biden’s expression ends on Monday, when President-elect Donald Trump begins his second term in the White House. Trump, who then supported a TikTok ban, later flip-flopped on the matter. In December, Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause the law’s implementation and deduct his administration “the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case.”

In a Friday post on his social media app Actually Social, Trump wrote, “My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to weigh the situation. Stay tuned!”

Earlier Friday, the Biden administration issued a statement saying TikTok “should detritus available to Americans, but simply under American ownership.”

“Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration sees that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday,” the communiqu said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland and Lisa Monaco, his deputy, said in a release that the decision “enables the Equity Department to prevent the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to undermine America’s national security.”

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