TikTok prepares to shut down their app in the US unless Biden makes assurances

The period around a US presidential inauguration often brings many changes, including shifts in cabinet members and the replacement of furniture in the president's office. This year, significant changes are also occurring in the social media landscape. For instance, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg is moving towards a model similar to Elon Musk's, utilizing a broader user base rather than paid fact-checkers to flag false content.

However, the real issue currently facing US social media users is the potential shutdown of TikTok. The US Congress overwhelmingly passed a bill to ban the Chinese-owned social media app, but the implementation of this ban has a lengthy delay period. This delay sets the TikTok ban to take effect on January 19th, approximately 32 hours before Donald Trump is sworn in as President of the United States.

Donald Trump has made it clear in recent weeks that he will reconsider the ban, suggesting a softening of his stance on the app since his time out of office. This is in stark contrast to his position during his first presidency, when he sought to ban the app and transfer it to US ownership. On the other hand, Joe Biden spearheaded the congressional hearings and legislation that defined TikTok as a national security risk.

US TikTok users have been bidding farewell to their followers in recent days, even directing them to other apps, also Chinese-owned, that are not banned in the US. Given that many individuals and businesses earn money or supplement their income through the TikTok platform, the ban will have a significant impact in the US. The incoming Trump administration is attempting to reverse this situation. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted his own video on TikTok, welcoming the Trump administration's “commitment to work with us [TikTok] to find a solution to keep TikTok available in the US.”

However, this commitment does not cover the period between when the ban goes into effect (around 4 PM Sunday afternoon Australian Eastern Daylight Time) and Trump’s inauguration (midnight Tuesday Australian time). As such, there may be a legal “grey area” for any company to ignore the existing law. Companies like Apple and Google would need to remove the app from their US app stores, and other third-party service providers working with TikTok could face legal action unless they get government assurances. TikTok is calling for such assurances from the outgoing Biden administration. An official from the Biden administration stated, “Americans should not expect TikTok to suddenly be banned on Sunday,” and that they are looking at how to implement the law without making TikTok unusable.

However, TikTok believes this is not enough, releasing a statement saying: “The statements released today by the Biden White House and Justice Department fail to provide the necessary clarity and assurances to the essential service providers who are critical to maintaining TikTok’s service to more than 170 million Americans. Unless the Biden Administration provides immediate clarification to meet the non-enforcement assurances of our most critical service providers, TikTok will unfortunately be forced to shut down on January 19.” US TikTok users will be watching developments closely. Notably, there is no impact on Australian users, other than the fact that US video creators they follow may no longer be visible on the platform to Australian fans.