TikTok plans to shut down its social media platform in the United States on Sunday, when the federal ban is due to take effect, according to Reuters.
President-elect Donald Trump, whose presidential term begins on 20 January, the day after the ban starts, is considering issuing an executive order to suspend the shutdown for between 60 and 90 days. His new security adviser Mike Waltz said on Wednesday:
TikTok itself is a fantastic platform. We’re going to find a way to preserve it but protect people’s data.
The legislation would ban new downloads of TikTok in the Apple or Google app stores if Chinese parent company ByteDance fails to divest the site.
Users would still be able to use TikTok. However, the law would prohibit US companies from providing services that allowed its distribution, maintenance or updates.
The administration of outgoing President Joe Biden was also considering options to keep TikTok after Sunday. Democratic Senator Ed Markey said Wednesday he tried to get unanimous consent to extend the deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok for 270 days, but Republican Senator Tom Cotton blocked the proposal.
In the event of a ban, TikTok plans to notify users via a pop-up message directing them to a website with information about the ban.
The US Supreme Court is currently deciding whether to uphold the law and allow TikTok to be banned on Sunday, strike down the law or suspend it to give the court more time to make a decision. Closing TikTok in the US could make it unavailable to users in many other countries, as some service providers in the US help make the platform available to TikTok users around the world.
Last month, TikTok said in a lawsuit that it estimated a third of its 170 million US users would stop accessing the platform if the ban lasted a month.
