TikTok says it will 'go dark' on Sunday without US government action

TikTok has said it will be forced to "go dark" in the US on Sunday unless the government intervenes before a ban takes effect.

In a statement late on Friday, it said the White House and the Department of Justice had "failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok's availability".

It said that unless the government immediately stepped in to assure the video app it would not be punished for violating the looming ban, it would be "forced to go dark on January 19".

The statement follows a Supreme Court ruling earlier on Friday which upheld a law banning the app in the US unless its China-based parent company, ByteDance, sells the platform by Sunday.

The potential ban comes at a time of heightened concern in the US about Chinese espionage.

Cybersecurity firms have suggested that the app is capable of collecting users' data beyond what they look at on TikTok.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said authoritarian regimes should not have "unfettered access" to Americans' data and that the decision prevented China from "weaponising TikTok to undermine America's national security".

China enacted a law in 2017 that compels Chinese nationals living abroad to co-operate with its intelligence apparatus.

But Beijing has denied it pressures companies to collect information on its behalf and criticised the ban. TikTok has repeatedly stressed it has not been asked for its data.

The app argued the law endangers free speech and would hit its users, advertisers, content creators and employees. TikTok has 7,000 US employees.

24 April 2024: Biden signs bipartisan TikTok bill, which gave Chinese parent company, ByteDance, six months to sell its controlling stake or be blocked in the US.

7 May 2024: TikTok files a lawsuit aiming to block the law, calling it an "extraordinary intrusion on free speech rights".

2 August 2024: The US government files a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the social media company of unlawfully collecting children's data and failing to respond when parents tried to delete their children's accounts.

6 December 2024: TikTok's bid to overturn a law which would see it banned or sold in the US from early 2025 is rejected by a federal appeals court.

27 December 2024: President-elect Donald Trump asks the US Supreme Court to delay the upcoming ban while he works on a "political resolution".

10 January 2025: The Supreme Court's nine justices hear from lawyers representing TikTok and content creators that the ban would be a violation of free speech protections for the platform's more than 170 million users in the US.

17 January 2025: The US Supreme Court upholds the law that could lead to TikTok being banned within days over national security concerns.

19 January 2025: The deadline for TikTok to sell its US stake or face a ban. TikTok has indicated it will "go dark" on this day.