In roughly 12 hours from now, TikTok could be inaccessible in the United States. These last couple of days have been extremely confusing despite the fact that the Supreme Court upheld the law to ban the social media app. The reason for this though is because of the recent statements issued by the administration of President Joe Biden. On Thursday, reports came out that they were "exploring options" to keep TikTok up and running. "Americans shouldn’t expect to see TikTok suddenly banned on Sunday," one official said.
Another White House official added, "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 the inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement." The only way to avoid the ban is for ByteDance to sell the rights to an American entity. Donald Trump, who takes office on Monday, did try and delay the process. However, his efforts were shut down.
The Clock Is Ticking On TikTok
Because of all of this uncertainty, especially from Biden's administration, TikTok has released a statement to explain what they need to not "go dark." "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."
Reps over at the app continue, "Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately, TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19." These next several hours are obviously crucial. Furthermore, it looks like Trump may not get the chance to decide for himself.
