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It is unclear whether TikTok will still be available in US app stores on Sunday, with the company saying that the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden will offer “definitive” assurances that it will not impose the ban.
Friday, the Supreme Court upheld a law which effectively bans TikTok in the US if app owner ByteDance doesn’t sell it. With an unlikely sale to pass in the two days before the entry into force of the law, it seemed that TikTok would disappear from the app store on Sunday, January 19.
This is, however, a day before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, and the incoming president had asked the Supreme Court to delay the ban so they can “negotiate a resolution to save the platform.” While the court did not agree to a delay, the Biden administration also seemed inclined to leave the fate of TikTok in the hands of Trump.
In a statement on Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden’s position has not changed – namely that “TikTok should be available to Americans, but only under American ownership or other ownership that addresses national security issues identified by Congress.” However, given the timing, Jean-Pierre said that “actions to implement the law should only come down to the next Administration.”
In the same way, a statement from the Department of Justice by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco suggested that “the next phase of this effort – the implementation and verification of compliance with the law after it takes effect on January 19 – will be a process that will take place in the time”.
TikTok, however, he responded with a statement of his own suggesting that this was not enough for the company and the app stores to continue offering the TikTok app. In TikTok’s view, Biden and the DOJ “failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to service providers that are integral to keeping TikTok available to more than 170 million Americans.”
The company added: “Unless the Biden administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers by ensuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19.”
