TIKTOK is ready to totally shut down its app to Americans on Sunday as the federal ban creeps in, according to reports.
Defiant US social media users have flocked to the Chinese-owned app RedNote in response to the government’s shock move.
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A federal ban on the platform was passed due to national security concerns.
The government revealed it would enforce the ban unless the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, sells it to a government-approved buyer.
TikTokers are reportedly set to be greeted by a different-looking app on Sunday.
Under TikTok’s plan, people attempting to open the app will see a pop-up message directing them to a website with information about the ban, a report said.
Users will then be able to download all of their data from TikTok.
The government’s plans for the app after Sunday will not see it deleted from phones or introduce a complete blackout.
However, the app will no longer appear in app stores or be able to be downloaded.
Mobile phone companies like Apple and Google will also be banned from helping TikTok keep running, including issuing updates, which will eventually make the app glitchy and unusable.
Talk of potential buyers had stalled until it was reported Elon Musk was in talks with China this week to buy the platform, but TikTok has dismissed the claim.
“We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction,” A TikTok spokesperson said.
The January 19 deadline imposed by the federal government is just days away, and there are no current real hopes of a sale.
TikTok has sought, at the very least, to delay the ban, claiming the move would violate the company’s First Amendment free speech rights.
The only way the incoming ban can be overturned is through a US Supreme Court decision.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case on Friday and is expected to rule today after signaling it would uphold the ban.
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Over 170 million Americans – roughly half of the country’s population – use the short-form video app.
TikTok believes a third of its users would abandon it a month into the looming ban.
Many American users have scrambled to find a TikTok alternative and flocked to a different Chinese-owned platform called RedNote.
An explosive decision
Analysis by Jamie Harris, Assistant Technology and Science Editor at The Sun
The “Will they, won’t they” saga of TikTok’s possible ban has been looming for some time and could come to an almighty conclusion very soon.
The US fears TikTok owner ByteDance has to the Chinese government – which the firm has long denied.
The US Justice Department says because TikTok’s parent company is from China, it has access to user data and poses “a national-security threat of immense depth and scale.”
However, TikTok has been planning to play hardball, opting to withdraw from the US entirely rather than undergo a forced sale or other arrangement.
This would be an explosive decision for a platform that boasts some 1.6 billion active users each month globally and an estimated 170 million from the US alone.
RedNote rose to the top of Apple’s App Store this week, becoming the most downloaded item in the country.
Its content is mainly in Chinese because of the app’s parent company, but the site is changing and becoming more friendly to English speakers.
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