New York
CNN
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The clock is ticking on TikTok in America.
or The law, which requires TikTok to find a new, non-Chinese owner or face a ban, is scheduled to take effect on Sunday — and there is little indication that the company is set to carry out 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, as TikTok became the first new platform in years to pose a real threat competitive for Americans. the powers of social media like Instagram and YouTube.
The Supreme Court upheld the law on Friday, bringing the ban one step closer.
But even though the ban deadline is now just two days away, there are still many unknowns about what exactly will happen.
Will TikTok be completely shut down in the United States? This is not what users or experts expected, but a report showed that it can do just that.
Will outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration provide direction? That doesn’t sound likely.
Will the incoming President Trump intervene? If the list of expected attendees at his inauguration is any indication, he’s likely to try.
Here’s what we know — and what we don’t — about the ban deadline day.
Experts had expected the app to be removed on Sunday from the app stores of Apple and Google — which could face fines under the law for continuing to host TikTok past the deadline. This means that anyone without the app is already activated their phones couldn’t download it, but existing users could continue to use it, without security updates, until it eventually became buggy or stopped working.
But a Biden administration official told CNN on Thursday that the outgoing president plans to leave it up to Trump to implement the ban. “Our position on this has been clear: TikTok must continue to operate under American ownership. Given the timing of it taking effect during a holiday weekend a day before the inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement it,” the official said.
This could mean that, since Trump takes office the day after the ban goes into effect, there will be no one to explicitly instruct app stores to remove the platform on Sunday, leaving them to decide for themselves whether to respect you.
But even if app stores leave TikTok alone, the company may decide to pull the plug on itself. Information reported on Wednesday that TikTok was preparing to shut down entirely on Sunday and instead direct users to an information page about the ban.
So users should prepare themselves mentally and emotionally to potentially lose access to the app starting Sunday, unless they want to download a VPN to get around the ban.
The main charge 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, to hand over the personal information of its US users, which could then be used for Chinese intelligence operations or the spread of sponsored disinformation. from China.
There is still no evidence that this actually happened. However, policymakers and security experts have said China’s national security laws make this a possibility — identifying a core risk that fits into a broader anti-China narrative related to issues including trade, human rights and authoritarianism.
Those concerns were renewed after a report in 2022 suggested that US user data had been repeatedly accessed by employees based in China. TikTok has disputed the report. In recent years, the company says it has made changes to the way it handles US user data, including storing it on US-based servers owned by Silicon Valley technology 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 from the United States.
The law to ban TikTok was widely supported on both sides of the aisle, with the US House of Representatives passing it by a bipartisan vote of 360-58. House Republican leadership attached the TikTok bill to funding for Ukrainian military equipment and Israeli missile defense, putting pressure on Senate lawmakers to consider the entire package with a single up-or-down vote.
The bill then quickly passed 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.
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 preserve the app.
The complicating factor: the ban is set to take effect the day before Trump takes office.
Trump had asked the Supreme Court to temporarily halt enforcement of the ban 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 working on a deal.
TikTok chief executive Shou Chew is set to sit in the square, along with other top tech CEOs, at Trump’s inauguration — perhaps a sign of how serious the incoming president is about trying to save the app.
And with some in Congress now suggesting that TikTok may need more time to find a buyer, Trump could find support in trying to push the ban to a later date. The law gives the president the ability to extend the ban by 90 days, but triggering the extension requires evidence that the parties working on the acquisition have made significant progress, including legally binding agreements for such a deal — and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has not publicly updated its stance that the app is not for sale.
Even if TikTok’s ban goes into effect, a sale of the app to a non-Chinese owner could restore access for US users.
A group formed by billionaire entrepreneur and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and including famous “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary made a formal offer to buy TikTok from China. ByteDance earlier this month. The group wants to buy TikTok’s assets in the US, though without the app’s beloved algorithm — which China has indicated it won’t allow to sell — and rebuild the platform with what they say would be a more transparent feed and more users control over their data.
Chinese officials have also reportedly discussed the possibility of selling TikTok to X’s owner, Elon Musk, who they may consider to be 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 the 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 talks. “But they haven’t told us to go fly a kite,” he said, adding that after the court’s decision, “I hope we can have a robust conversation.”
But here’s the thing: Even if TikTok is sold and Americans can continue to use 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 mean feat. easy. Many tech giants have already spent years trying to replicate TikTok’s algorithm without success.
Downloading a US-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 that by Sunday — and will likely last at least next week — there may be more questions than answers for TikTok users about the app’s future.
TikTok’s US assets, excluding the algorithm, are estimated to be worth between $40 billion and $50 billion, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives.
But since the algorithm may be where most of TikTok’s value lies, it’s hard to put a firm dollar figure on the company.
McCourt’s group is not publicly saying how much it offered, although the billionaire previously indicated he valued the assets at about $20 billion.
“We will refrain from publicly sharing the financial specifics of our offer until ByteDance is able to review our proposal,” the group said in a statement.
CNN’s Brian Fung and Jack Forrest contributed to this report.
