Summary
- TikTok reportedly plans to shut down entirely in the US on Sunday, halting access to all users — not just new downloads.
- Users will see a pop-up message on TikTok after the ban with information about it, and the option to download their data.
- A US Senator has introduced a bill to delay the ban by 270 days, but it likely won’t go through before the ban.
TikTok’s demise in the US is fast approaching unless US lawmakers or the Supreme Court decide to intervene at the last second before its ban goes into effect on Sunday, January 19. One of the questions lingering on people’s minds is how the ban will work exactly, and now it might be clear how it will all go down.
The law that Congress passed stipulates that TikTok must stop allowing new downloads of the app from places like the Google Play Store and App Store, but it doesn’t immediately have to halt users from accessing the app. However, TikTok reportedly plans to shut down entirely in the US on Sunday, stopping new and existing users from using the app (via Reuters).
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What will happen when you open TikTok on Sunday?
Users will reportedly get a pop-up message about the ban
According to Reuters, once the ban goes into effect this Sunday, a pop-up message will appear when you open TikTok with a link to a website with information about the US government’s ban. Users will also reportedly be presented with an option to download all their data.
This means that starting on Sunday, users in the US will be entirely shut out of TikTok, going beyond what the bill that bans it requires. If TikTok goes ahead with this plan, it could be seen as an attempt by the company to create more awareness and push back against the ban to its millions of users in the US. TikTok has argued that if the app gets shut down, small businesses that use it would lose over $1 billion in revenue, and creators would lose over $300 million in earnings.
US Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) plans to introduce a bill that would delay the TikTok ban by 270 days, but it’s unlikely it will be presented and passed before the ban goes into effect. In April last year, Congress passed a bill requiring Bytedance to sell or divest TikTok by January 19, 2025, or face a ban in the US. Ahead of the ban, users in the US have been flocking in droves to a new TikTok alternative known as Xiaohongshu, or RedNote in English, a Chinese social media app similar to Instagram.
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