TikTok said Friday that the app will “go dark” on Sunday after not receiving enough assurance from outgoing President Joe Biden about his plans for enforcing a scheduled ban.
“The statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans,” TikTok said in an emailed statement Friday night.
TikTok called on Biden to immediately provide “a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement.” Otherwise, it will be “forced to go dark on January 19,” the company said.
It’s making the request hours after the Supreme Court upheld a law on Friday forcing TikTok to sever ties from Beijing-based ByteDance, or face a ban from U.S. app stores.
The White House press office didn’t immediately reply to a question about whether Biden would consider the request.
The law is written to punish app stores, not TikTok, if they choose to carry the popular video-sharing app past the Sunday deadline. TikTok’s demand was written to include the full range of companies that might be implicated.
A White House official has already said Biden is unlikely to give the app more time in his last two days in office. The president ”does not have the statutory authority” to trigger a reprieve without “a credible plan from the company on how they will divest,” the official told POLITICO Thursday.
However, his administration later said he wouldn’t enforce the law in that time. White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday that given the law’s timing, “actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration.”
The White House statement sounded like Biden was choosing to make Sunday a punishment-free period for app stores. But others weren’t so sure: Jeffrey Fischer, a lawyer who represented a group of TikTok creators before the Supreme Court, also urged Biden to clarify the matter.
“In light of the interests involved, we respectfully request that you direct the Justice Department to pause enforcement until there is further definitive guidance,” he wrote in a Friday letter shared with POLITICO. “In addition, we request that you clarify that no app store, internet hosting service, or other provider faces any risk of enforcement or penalties with respect to TikTok, CapCut, or any other ByteDance apps.”
If TikTok and the creators are successful in squeezing that guidance out of the White House, app stores may feel more comfortable risking the penalties and keep TikTok accessible in the U.S.
Trump, on the other hand, reacted to the court’s decision on Friday by saying “everyone must respect” it, while leaving the door open to take matters into his own hands. “My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!” he posted on Truth Social.
