(Reuters) – TikTok buzzed with nervous anticipation across the United States on Saturday as an impending federal ban threatened to cut off access to the Chinese-owned app that has captured nearly half of all Americans, supported small businesses and shaped online culture.
The company said late Friday that it will go dark in the US on Sunday unless President Joe Biden’s administration provides assurances to companies like Apple (NASDAQ:) and Google that they will not face enforcement action when the ban goes into effect.
The ban will be enacted under a law signed by President Joe Biden in April, and would mark the first U.S. shutdown of a major social media app — TikTok has about 170 million domestic users and an estimated $20 billion in 2025 revenue.
The platform has until Sunday to cut ties with its China-based parent company, ByteDance, or close its operations in the United States to resolve concerns that it poses a national security threat.
Supreme Court justices upheld the ban on Friday in a unanimous decision and a White House statement indicated that Biden would not take any action to rescue TikTok before the deadline.
Without a decision from Biden to formally invoke a 90-day delay in the deadline, companies that provide services for TikTok or host the app could face legal liability. It’s not clear whether TikTok’s business partners, including Apple, Alphabet (NASDAQ:) Google, and Oracle (NYSE:), will continue doing business with it ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
Uncertainty about the app’s future has sent users – mostly young people – scrambling to alternatives including China-based RedNote. Rivals Meta (NASDAQ:) and Snap also saw their shares rise this month before the ban, as investors bet on an influx of users and advertising dollars.
Marketing companies relying on TikTok scrambled to prepare contingency plans this week in what one executive described as a “hair on fire” moment after months of conventional wisdom that a solution would materialize to keep the app running.
There have been signs that TikTok could make a comeback under next US President Donald Trump, who wants to pursue a “political solution” to the issue, and had urged the Supreme Court last month to temporarily halt implementation of the ban.
Trump said on Friday that the decision about TikTok’s future would be up to him, but he did not provide any details about what steps he would take. Media reports said he was considering issuing an executive order that would suspend implementation of the TikTok sale or ban law for 60 to 90 days.
A source told Reuters that TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew intends to attend the US President’s inauguration on January 20 and sit among the prominent guests invited by Trump.
Suitors, including former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, have expressed interest in the fast-growing business that analysts estimate could be worth as much as $50 billion. Media reports say Beijing has also held talks about selling TikTok’s US operations to billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk, although the company has denied this.
Privately held ByteDance is roughly 60% owned by institutional investors such as BlackRock (NYSE:) and General Atlantic, while its founders and employees own 20% each. It has more than 7,000 employees in the United States