TikTok is set to be banned Sunday. Here’s what it means for you
The clock is ticking down on TikTok in America.
A law that requires TikTok to find a new, non-Chinese owner or face a ban is scheduled to go into effect Sunday — and there is little indication the company is set to pull off a sale before then.
That means 170 million Americans could lose access to a platform they use to find entertainment, news and community, or even run a business, after TikTok became the first new platform in years to pose a real competitive threat to American social media stalwarts like Instagram and YouTube.
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the law, bringing the ban one step closer.
But although the ban deadline is now just two days away, there are still many unknowns about what exactly will happen.
Will TikTok shut itself off entirely in the United States? That’s not what users or experts had expected, but one report indicated it may do just that.
Will the outgoing President Joe Biden administration provide direction? That’s not sounding likely.
Will incoming President Trump intervene? If the list of expected attendees at his inauguration is any indication, it’s likely he’ll try.
Here’s what we know — and what we don’t — about the ban deadline day.
Will my app go away?
Experts had expected the app to be removed on Sunday from the Apple and Google app stores — which could face fines under the law for continuing to host TikTok after the deadline. That would mean anyone without the app already on their phones couldn’t download it, but existing users could continue accessing it, without security updates, until it eventually becomes glitchy or stops working.
But a Biden administration official told CNN Thursday that the outgoing president plans to leave it to Trump to enforce the ban. “Our position on this has been clear: TikTok should continue to operate under American ownership. Given the timing of when it goes into effect over a holiday weekend a day before inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement,” the official said.
That could mean that, given Trump takes office the day after the ban takes effect, there would be no one to explicitly instruct app stores to remove the platform on Sunday, potentially leaving them to decide for themselves whether to comply.
But even if the app stores left TikTok alone, the company may decide to pull the plug itself. The Information reported Wednesday that TikTok was preparing to shut itself down entirely on Sunday and instead direct users to an informational page about the ban.
Why TikTok was banned
The central allegation against TikTok is that the company poses a potential national security risk. US officials have worried that the Chinese government could pressure TikTok or its parent company, ByteDance, into handing over the personal information of its US users, which could then be used for Chinese intelligence operations or the spreading of Chinese-backed disinformation.
There’s no evidence yet that that has actually happened. Still, policymakers and security experts have said China’s national security laws make it a possibility — identifying a kernel of risk that fits into a broader anti-China narrative linked to issues including trade, human rights and authoritarianism.
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Those concerns were renewed after a report in 2022 suggested US user data had been repeatedly accessed by China-based employees. TikTok has disputed the report. In recent years, the company says it made changes to how it handles US user data, including storing it in US-based severs owned by Silicon Valley tech company Oracle.
President Joe Biden signed a bill in April that required the platform to be sold to a new, non-Chinese owner or be banned in the United States.
Who supported a TikTok ban?
The law to ban TikTok was widely supported across both sides of the aisle, with the US House of Representatives approving it with a bipartisan vote of 360-58. House Republican leadership attached the TikTok bill to funding for Ukrainian military equipment and Israeli missile defense, putting the pressure on Senate lawmakers to consider the whole package in a single up-or-down vote.
The bill was then fast-tracked through the Senate, passing less than a week later. The Biden administration ordered all executive branch employees to remove TikTok from their phones within 30 days in February 2023.
What’s Trump going to do?
Although the idea of a TikTok ban was born during Trump’s first presidency, he has since made a 180-degree turn and said he wants to save the app.
The complicating factor: the ban is set to go into effect one day before Trump takes office.
Trump had asked the Supreme Court to temporarily pause the ban’s implementation to give him time, as president, to negotiate a sale of TikTok. And sources familiar with his plans told CNN on Wednesday that he was weighing whether to delay the ban and preserve Americans’ access to the platform while he works on a deal.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew is set to be seated on the dais, alongside other leading tech CEOs, at Trump’s inauguration — perhaps a sign of just how serious the incoming president is about trying to save the app.
And with some in Congress now suggesting that TikTok might need more time to find a buyer, Trump could find support in trying to push off the ban to a later date. The law gives the president the option to extend the ban by 90 days, but triggering the extension requires evidence that parties working on purchasing have made significant progress, including binding legal agreements for such a deal — and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, hasn’t publicly updated its stance that the app is not for sale.
Is a sale still possible?
Even if the TikTok ban does go into effect, a sale of the app to a non-Chinese owner could restore access for US users.
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A group formed by billionaire entrepreneur and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and including “Shark Tank”-famous investor Kevin O’Leary made a formal bid to buy TikTok from China-based ByteDance earlier this month. The group wants to buy TikTok’s US assets, albeit without the app’s beloved algorithm — which China has indicated it will not allow to be sold — and rebuild the platform with what they say would be a more transparent feed, and more user control over their data.
Chinese officials have also reportedly discussed the possibility of selling TikTok to X owner Elon Musk, whom they might consider the friendliest possible American owner. Musk and ByteDance have not commented on the reports; TikTok called them “pure fiction.”
McCourt told CNN on Thursday that while ByteDance’s bankers have confirmed receipt of his group’s offer, he expected the company was “waiting to hear what the Supreme Court does” before seriously engaging in any acquisition conversations. “But they haven’t told us to go fly a kite,” he said, adding that following the court’s ruling, “I hope we can have a robust conversation.”
But here’s the thing: Even if TikTok is sold and Americans can keep using it, it will in many ways be a different app. Because China is almost certain to block the sale of the algorithm along with TikTok’s US assets, the app’s “For You” feed will have to be rebuilt by the new owner — which will be no easy task. Many tech giants have already spent years trying to replicate TikTok’s algorithm without quite succeeding.
Spinning off an American-only version of TikTok could also mean the rest of the world has to download a new app to access US users’ content.
The bottom line is, until Sunday — and probably extending at least into next week — there may be more questions than answers for TikTok users about the app’s future.
TikTok could be banned in the U.S. this weekend. What to know and how to prepare
TikTok has cemented itself as a quintessential entertainment app, offering everything from funny skits and makeup tutorials to social commentary and news.
Without a sale to an approved buyer, the platform is expected to vanish from U.S. app stores by Sunday now that the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the the ban.
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The decision came against the backdrop of unusual political agitation by President-elect Donald Trump, who vowed that he could negotiate a solution. It’s unclear what options are open to Trump once he is sworn in as president on Monday. An official in the Biden administration told the Associated Press on Thursday that the outgoing administration was leaving the implementation of the law to the new administration.
TikTok has more than 170 million U.S. users. According to the Pew Research Center, that includes most teens and a third of adults. If you are an avid user, or a creator who relies on the platform for income, here’s what you need to know about the ban and how to prepare for it:
What happens to TikTok on Jan. 19? Will TikTok be banned?
A lawyer representing TikTok told Supreme Court justices last week that TikTok will “go dark” on Jan. 19 if the law isn’t struck down.
What that means in practice is unclear currently, but the law bars app stores operated by Apple, Google and others from offering TikTok beginning on Sunday. Internet hosting services also will be prohibited from hosting TikTok.
Users should continue to have access to TikTok if it’s already downloaded on their phones, but the app will disappear from Apple and Google’s app stores — so new users won’t be able to download it.
This would mean that TikTok wouldn’t be able to send updates, security patches and bug fixes to users, all of which will degrade the quality of the app and likely lead to security issues. Eventually, the app will become unworkable.
Akin to the app, David Choffnes, executive director of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at Northeastern University in Boston, says the TikTok website should continue to work even after the ban goes into effect.
The statute would prohibit domestic internet hosting providers from hosting the platform, Choffnes said, but companies could theoretically use servers outside of the U.S. That likely will make content on the platform load more slowly and lead to worse performance on the app and the TikTok website, he said.
Would I still have access to my favorite videos?
TikTok allows you to save the videos or photos you’ve posted, or content from your favorite influencers. Any posts you choose to save will be downloaded and kept on your phone.
Many TikTok creators allow users to download their posts, but it’s possible you might not be able to save everything you want since some put limits on their content. Users also can’t download content off of private accounts or those registered to anyone under the age of 16.
If you’re interested, the platform allows you to request a copy of your TikTok data, which includes things like your comment and video watching history. The company says it may take a few days to prepare that type of file.
Are people going to other apps?
If a TikTok ban occurs, established social media platforms, such as Meta’s Instagram, Snapchat and Google’s YouTube are expected to benefit from having one of their biggest competitors taken off of the U.S. market.
The rise of the short-form video platform led many others to offer TikTok-like feeds on their own platforms, such as Instagram’s Reels and YouTube’s Shorts. And if TikTok goes away, it’s likely that creators, and small businesses, on the app would more easily switch to Reels and Shorts since they already have large audiences and a user base that overlaps with TikTok, said Jasmine Enberg, an analyst at market research company Emarketer.
TikTok users themselves have tested the waters with several other platforms outside of the established platforms. Among the ones that have received the most buzz: China’s Xiaohongshu (“RedNote”) and Lemon8.
What is going to happen next to TikTok?
The TikTok saga will be in the hands of the incoming Trump administration, which has already said that’s its exploring options to “preserve” the popular app.
“We will put measures in place to keep TikTok from going dark,” Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick for national security adviser, said Thursday during an interview on Fox News’ Fox & Friends. Waltz also commented that the law allows for an extension on the ban “as long as a viable deal is on the table.”
Trump, mindful of TikTok’s popularity, and his own 14.7 million followers on the app, finds himself on the opposite side of the argument from prominent Senate Republicans who fault TikTok’s Chinese owner for not finding a buyer before now. Trump said in a Truth Social post shortly before the decision was issued that TikTok was among the topics in his conversation Friday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to be seated on the dais for the inauguration along with tech billionaires Elon Musk, who is CEO of SpaceX, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, according to two people with the matter. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.
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