TikTok is reportedly planning to shut down the Chinese-owned video-sharing app completely when a law requiring it to be banned or sold goes into effect on Sunday.
The roughly 170 million U.S. users who try to access the app will see a pop-up message directing them to a website detailing the ban, according to the company. information.
Users will also have the option to download data from the app, people familiar with the plan said.
The company's plan goes beyond laws that require app store operators like Google and Apple to stop allowing downloads of TikTok, but will allow users who already have the app installed on their phones to continue using TikTok. I'm doing it.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lawmakers and the Justice Department say TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, could secretly manipulate content through recommendation algorithms and mass data collection such as location tracking, among other risks. It alleges that the United States is sexually active and poses an unacceptable national security threat.
TikTok denied the allegations.
The Supreme Court could decide to block the divestment law before Sunday's deadline, but it appears unlikely to do so. During oral arguments on TikTok's appeal last week, all nine justices ruled that the national security concerns that led President Joe Biden to sign the law outweighed the potential risks to free speech. I expressed my opinion.
President-elect Trump, who returns to the White House on Monday, has previously been harshly critical of TikTok, but has recently spoken out against banning it. His lawyers asked the Supreme Court to halt the ban so he can pursue a political solution.
Last month, President Trump met with TikTok CEO Sho Zhi Chu at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
The divestment bill passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support and was signed into law last April. ByteDance will have 120 days to sell the app.
TikTok argued that the new law is a de facto ban that violates the First Amendment. The company also claims that it could not have sold the app within 120 days of the bill.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Chinese authorities are considering the possibility of selling the TikTok brand to Elon Musk. Elon Musk already owns social media platform X and heads Tesla, which has extensive operations in China.
A TikTok representative dismissed the report as “complete fiction.”
Other potential suitors for TikTok include President Trump's former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and “Shark Tank” star Kevin, who wants to buy the brand and rebuild the algorithm from scratch on U.S. soil. They include billionaire Frank McCourt, who has partnered with Mr. O'Leary.
