As a ban looms over the social media app and its 170 million users, TikTok said it will be “forced to go dark” on Sunday unless the Biden administration explicitly declares that it will not enforce the ban.
In a statement Friday night, TikTok said the Biden administration has “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” following the Supreme Court’s decision earlier that day to uphold the “divest or ban” law.
“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,” TikTok said.
The statement, issued just over a day before the ban is scheduled to go into effect, puts pressure on President Joe Biden in his final days in office to publicly decline to enforce a law that passed Congress swiftly with bipartisan support.
Under the law, app stores must remove TikTok from their offerings or potentially face up to a $5,000 fine for each user who continues to access the app. Although the Biden administration has said it will be up to its successor to implement the law, companies like Apple and Google are likely to consider it a massive risk to keep TikTok in their app stores given the five-year enforcement window.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Saturday called TikTok’s latest statement a “stunt” and clarified that its position is that the Trump administration is responsible for enforcing the ban.
“It is a stunt, and we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump Administration takes office on Monday,” she said. “We have laid out our position clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this law will fall to the next administration. So TikTok and other companies should take up any concerns with them.”








