“TikTok Considering Total Shutdown in U.S. Sunday if Ban Moves Forward”
TikTok is preparing to potentially make the app unavailable to its 170 million American users on Sunday, the same day a U.S. ban is set to go into effect, according to a person with knowledge of the company’s planning who spoke with NBC News.
A law signed by President Joe Biden in April requires TikTok to divest from its Chinese ownership and sell to a U.S. company or it will be shut down. If the Supreme Court declares the law unconstitutional before then, TikTok can continue to exist as it is today.
But a final decision has not been made by TikTok on what will happen if the Supreme Court rules against the company,” according to the person with knowledge of the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Active conversations — including phone calls and meetings — were ongoing as of midday on Wednesday, the person said.
A Tuesday report from The Information said if the justices uphold the law, the app will go dark rather than allow people already on the app to continue using it, citing two unnamed sources it said were familiar with TikTok’s plans.
Another option being discussed, according to the person who spoke with NBC News, is the potential for content to still be viewable in TikTok for users who have the application, though the app would no longer receive updates. It would be unavailable for new downloads in any app stores in the U.S., and the app would stop working over time because it would not be able to receive bug fixes and updates.
Noel Francisco, an attorney for TikTok, told the Supreme Court on Friday that to his understanding the app would “go dark” on Jan. 19 if the company lost the case. “Essentially, the platform shuts down,” Francisco said.
That is what happened in India when TikTok was banned there on June 29, 2020. Nikhil Pahwa, who founded the tech policy publication MediaNama in India, told NBC News that the app shut down the night the ban went into effect.
“By morning, we found that TikTok wasn’t accessible,” Pahwa said. “So the effect was immediate. It was just — one evening access was just cut off. Users had nowhere to go. Brands that were advertising on TikTok had nowhere to go.”
For Americans visiting India, opening the TikTok app on their phone results in a notification that says “Our services are not available in your country or region.” Pahwa said that for Indian users, the mobile app doesn’t work and clicking on a TikTok link on a desktop computer results in “a simple landing page that says that the app is no longer available in India.”
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