TikTok blamed President Biden and his Justice Department Friday for forcing the popular social media platform to go dark on Sunday.
“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,” the company said.
The statement came hours after the Supreme Court upheld a law banning TikTok from domestic operations unless it divested by Sunday.
The company had challenged the law, saying it ran afoul of the First Amendment.
Mr. Biden and his Justice Department welcomed the high court’s move, but the White House noted it would fall on the incoming Trump administration to implement the law. However, the deadline for TikTok to go dark occurs one day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
“The statements 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’s availability to over 170 million Americans,” the statement from TikTok read.
The unanimous decision from the Supreme Court on Friday meant ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, must sell the app by Sunday or else U.S. marketplaces and tech companies will have to stop supporting the app on their platforms.
The justices, in their unanimous opinion, said the national security implications of Chinese ownership take precedence.
Mr. Trump had urged the justices to delay implementation of the law so he could strike a deal working out First Amendment and national security concerns.
He said once in office, he would try to strike a deal that would protect the company while also preserving U.S. national security. But he doesn’t get sworn in until one day after the law’s deadline, suggesting the app could go dark for a period of time.
TikTok is a U.S.-based company, but its primary social media app uses computer source code from ByteDance, including the algorithm that decides which content to promote.
Congress approved the legislation at issue with strong bipartisan support in April, and Mr. Biden signed it into law. The legislation gave ByteDance 270 days to sell the company.
U.S. officials have said they fear Beijing would pressure ByteDance to skew the content pushed to American users, promoting Chinese propaganda or anti-American messages. Members of Congress also said they fear ByteDance could scoop up massive amounts of data on American users — information that could be used for blackmail or other nefarious purposes later.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.