TikTok Shut Down On Us In 2025 On Sunday operations of its social media app used by 170 million Americans on Sunday, when a federal ban is set to take effect, barring a last-minute reprieve, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
The Washington Post reported President-elect Donald Trump, whose term begins a day after a ban would start, is considering issuing an executive order to suspend enforcement of a shutdown for 60 to 90 days.
Users who have downloaded TikTok would theoretically still be able to use the app, except that starting Sunday, the law also bars U.S. companies from providing services to enable the distribution.
The Supreme Court accepted a last-ditch legal bid from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, that to do so would be unconstitutional. If the Supreme Court declares the law unconstitutional before then, TikTok can continue to exist as it is today.
TikTok had said that the prohibitions would eventually make the app unusable, noting in the filing that “data centres would almost certainly conclude that they can no longer store” TikTok code, content, or data.
TikTok and its Chinese parent, ByteDance, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Last April, President Joe Biden signed a law requiring ByteDance to sell its U.S. assets by Jan. 19 or face a nationwide ban. Last week, the Supreme Court seemed inclined to uphold the law, despite calls from Trump and lawmakers to extend the deadline.
If the ban lasted a month, 170 million American users would stop accessing the platform.
