{"id":123080,"date":"2025-01-18T04:21:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T04:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/tiktok-says-it-will-go-dark-unless-it-gets-clarity-from-biden-following-supreme-court-ruling-the-associated-press\/"},"modified":"2025-01-18T04:21:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T04:21:13","slug":"tiktok-says-it-will-go-dark-unless-it-gets-clarity-from-biden-following-supreme-court-ruling-the-associated-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/tiktok-says-it-will-go-dark-unless-it-gets-clarity-from-biden-following-supreme-court-ruling-the-associated-press\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTok says it will \u2018go dark\u2019 unless it gets clarity from Biden following Supreme Court ruling – The Associated Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the federal law banning TikTok beginning Sunday unless it\u2019s sold by its China-based parent company.
Sarah Baus, left, of Charleston, S.C., and Tiffany Cianci, who says she is a \u201clong-form educational content creator,\u201d livestream to TikTok outside the Supreme Court, on Jan. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
The Supreme Court in Washington, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo\/Susan Walsh, File)
The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
The Supreme Court at sunset in Washington, Feb. 13, 2016. (AP Photo\/Jon Elswick, File)
The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the federal law banning TikTok beginning Sunday unless it\u2019s sold by its China-based parent company.
Sarah Baus, left, of Charleston, S.C., and Tiffany Cianci, who says she is a \u201clong-form educational content creator,\u201d livestream to TikTok outside the Supreme Court, on Jan. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Sarah Baus, left, of Charleston, S.C., and Tiffany Cianci, who says she is a \u201clong-form educational content creator,\u201d livestream to TikTok outside the Supreme Court, on Jan. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
The Supreme Court in Washington, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo\/Susan Walsh, File)
The Supreme Court in Washington, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo\/Susan Walsh, File)
The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
The Supreme Court at sunset in Washington, Feb. 13, 2016. (AP Photo\/Jon Elswick, File)
The Supreme Court at sunset in Washington, Feb. 13, 2016. (AP Photo\/Jon Elswick, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 TikTok<\/a><\/span> said it will have to \u201cgo dark\u201d this weekend unless the outgoing Biden administration assures the company it won\u2019t enforce a shutdown of the popular app after the Supreme Court<\/a><\/span> on Friday unanimously upheld the federal law banning the app unless it\u2019s sold by its China-based parent company.
The Supreme Court<\/a><\/span> in its ruling held that the risk to national security posed by TikTok\u2019s ties to China overcomes concerns about limiting speech by the app or its 170 million users in the United States.
The decision came against the backdrop of unusual political agitation by President-elect Donald Trump, who vowed that he could negotiate a solution, and the administration of President Joe Biden, which has signaled it won\u2019t enforce the law \u2014 which was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support \u2014 beginning Sunday, his final full day in office.
\u201cTikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law,\u201d White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement, noting that actions to implement the law will fall to the new administration.
TikTok released a statement late Friday saying \u201cstatements 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\u2019s availability to over 170 million Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless 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,\u201d the statement said.
A sale does not appear imminent and, although experts have said the app will not disappear from existing users\u2019 phones once the law takes effect, new users won\u2019t be able to download it and updates won\u2019t be available. That will eventually render the app unworkable, the Justice Department has said in court filings.
Trump, mindful of TikTok\u2019s popularity and his own 14.7 million followers on the app, finds himself on the opposite side of the argument from prominent Senate Republicans who fault TikTok\u2019s Chinese owner for not finding a buyer before now. Trump said in a Truth Social post shortly before the decision was issued that TikTok was among the topics in his conversation Friday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping<\/a><\/span>.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who is expected to attend Trump\u2019s inauguration, used the app to thank the incoming president for \u201chis commitment to work with us to keep TikTok available.\u201d
It\u2019s unclear what options are open to Trump, a Republican, once he is sworn in as president Monday. The law allowed for a 90-day pause in the restrictions on the app if there had been progress toward a sale before it took effect. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who defended the law at the Supreme Court for the Democratic Biden administration, told the justices last week that it\u2019s uncertain whether the prospect of a sale once the law is in effect could trigger a 90-day respite for TikTok.
The decision explores the intersection of the First Amendment and national security concerns in the fast-changing realm of social media, and the justices acknowledged in their opinion that the new terrain has been difficult to navigate given they know relatively little about it.
\u201cCongress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok\u2019s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary,\u201d the court said in an unsigned opinion, adding that the law \u201cdoes not violate petitioners\u2019 First Amendment rights.\u201d
AP correspondent Ed Donahue reports on the TikTok\u2019s deadline to avoid a ban in the US.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch filed short separate opinions noting some reservations about the court\u2019s decision but going along with the outcome.
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the federal law banning TikTok beginning Sunday unless it\u2019s sold by its China-based parent company. President-elect Donald Trump vowed he could negotiate a solution, and the Biden administration has signaled it won\u2019t enforce the law.
\u201cWithout doubt, the remedy Congress and the President chose here is dramatic,\u201d Gorsuch wrote. Still, he said he was persuaded by the argument that China could get access to \u201cvast troves of personal information about tens of millions of Americans.\u201d
Some digital rights groups slammed the court\u2019s ruling shortly after it was released.
\u201cToday\u2019s unprecedented decision upholding the TikTok ban harms the free expression of hundreds of millions of TikTok users in this country and around the world,\u201d said Kate Ruane, a director at the Washington-based Center for Democracy & Technology, which has supported TikTok\u2019s challenge to the federal law.
Content creators who opposed the law also worried about the effect on their business if TikTok shuts down. \u201cI\u2019m very, very concerned about what\u2019s going to happen over the next couple weeks,\u201d said Desiree Hill, owner of Crown\u2019s Corner mechanic shop in Conyers, Georgia. \u201cAnd very scared about the decrease that I\u2019m going to have in reaching customers and worried I\u2019m going to potentially lose my business in the next six months.\u201d
At arguments, the justices were told by a lawyer for TikTok and ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese technology company that is its parent, how difficult it would be to consummate a deal, especially since Chinese law restricts the sale of the proprietary algorithm that has made the social media platform wildly successful.
The app allows users to watch hundreds of videos<\/a><\/span> in about half an hour because some are only a few seconds long, according to a lawsuit filed last year by Kentucky complaining that TikTok is designed to be addictive and harms kids\u2019 mental health. Similar suits were filed by more than a dozen states<\/a><\/span>. TikTok has called the claims inaccurate.
The dispute over TikTok\u2019s ties to China has come to embody the geopolitical competition between Washington and Beijing.
\u201cByteDance and its Chinese Communist masters had nine months to sell TikTok before the Sunday deadline,\u201d Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., wrote on X. \u201cThe very fact that Communist China refuses to permit its sale reveals exactly what TikTok is: a communist spy app. The Supreme Court correctly rejected TikTok\u2019s lies and propaganda masquerading as legal arguments.\u201d
The U.S. has said it\u2019s concerned about TikTok collecting vast swaths of user data, including sensitive information on viewing habits<\/a><\/span>, that could fall into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion. Officials have also warned the algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way that\u2019s difficult to detect.
TikTok points out the U.S. has not presented evidence that China has attempted to manipulate content on its U.S. platform or gather American user data through TikTok.
Biden signed the legislation it into law in April. The law was the culmination of a yearslong saga in Washington<\/a><\/span> over TikTok, which the government sees as a national security threat<\/a><\/span>.
TikTok, which sued the government last year over the law, has long denied it could be used as a tool of Beijing. A three-judge panel made up of two Republican appointees and a Democratic appointee unanimously upheld the law in December, prompting TikTok\u2019s quick appeal to the Supreme Court.
Without a sale to an approved buyer, the law bars app stores operated by Apple, Google and others from offering TikTok beginning Sunday. Internet hosting services also will be prohibited from hosting TikTok.
ByteDance has said it won\u2019t sell. But some investors have been eyeing it, including Trump\u2019s former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin<\/a><\/span> and billionaire businessman Frank McCourt<\/a><\/span>. McCourt\u2019s Project Liberty initiative has said it and its unnamed partners have presented a proposal to ByteDance to acquire TikTok\u2019s U.S. assets. The consortium, which includes \u201cShark Tank\u201d host Kevin O\u2019Leary, did not disclose the financial terms of the offer.
McCourt, in a statement following the ruling, said his group was \u201cready to work with the company and President Trump to complete a deal.\u201d
Prelogar told the justices last week that having the law take effect \u201cmight be just the jolt\u201d ByteDance needs to reconsider its position.
Associated Press writers Haleluya Hadero, Mae Anderson and Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report. Hadero reported from South Bend, Indiana, and Anderson from New York.
Follow the AP\u2019s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/us-supreme-court<\/a><\/span>.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

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