TikTok says it will go dark Sunday unless Biden administration offers clarity on ban, users hope for last-minute save

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Late Friday night, Jan. 17, TikTok issued a statement saying it will go dark Sunday, Jan. 19 unless the Biden administration intervenes.

The app is set to be banned after the US Supreme Court unanimously denied an appeal earlier Friday from the app's owners.

TikTok's statement says in part: "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 Biden administration said earlier in the week it would not enforce the ban and left its fate to the incoming Trump administration. President elect Trump has indicated he'd like to save the app.

The looming ban has been a hot topic for the 170 million US users.

A First Amendment expert told us it's difficult to get this Supreme Court to agree on anything these days. But their unanimity speaks to the seriousness of the perceived threat.

Kathleen Bartzen Culver is the director of the University of Wisconsin's School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She told us, "Corporations do have First Amendment rights in the US, users do have First Amendment rights, but I can't claim a First Amendment right to use a particular platform."

The Court affirmed Friday a potential ban on TikTok and its Chinese owners does not violate the First Amendment.

The court quoted caselaw, saying, “[F]oreign organizations operating abroad have no First Amendment rights.”

Congress passed the law in part because of concerns China is mining users' data.

Bartzen Culver said, "TikTok scrapes all the data of all your contacts because you allowed it to. Because you didn't read through multiple screens."

The US is also worried China will manipulate content and promote propaganda.

Marquette sophomore Jenan Halawa said it was extremely popular among young people in the lead up to the 2024 election. "If you ask most younger voters how they got most of their information, it was probably through TikTok."

ByteDance -TikTok's owner- had 270 days to sell the app from when Congress passed the law.

But ByteDance refused to sell, digging in for a ban.

Milwaukee realtor Emily Walczak uses TikTok to cultivate leads and develop her business. She told us, "I'm honestly devastated, because my livelihood really is tied to TikTok."

Walczak said 90% of her business comes from TikTok, where she's garnered nearly 30,000 followers.

And she said she's not the only small business owner at risk. "We're not talking about Californian, big, huge influencers, we're talking about normal, everyday people. That I think this is a really huge blow to them."

Walczak said five to 10 people reach out to her every day through TikTok.

While a ban won't change her skills or ability, she said, "It's definitely going to affect me in terms of how many of those clients reach out to me."

TikTok users told CBS 58 that the app is unique from the other social networks that came before it. "It is such a big platform and it's so easy to reach audiences so quickly," said Halawa.

Andrea Hoppe said she prefers it over Instagram because it has a special way of bringing people together.

TikTok's parent company ByteDance is Chinese owned, which raised national security concerns for U.S. lawmakers, leading to the ban. The law called for TikTok to stop running in the US unless ByteDance sold the app to a non-Chinese owner, something the company's lawyers have signaled is not likely.

Several TikTok users told CBS 58 they have no security concerns about the app. "If you're not paying for the product, you are the product so every time we use our phone, our data is getting sold. It is not just TikTok," said Halawa.

Experts say come Jan. 19th, the app could continue to work for a while before eventually beginning to experience glitches and ultimately malfunctions when software updates become unavailable. But it appears TikTok will pull the plug and make the app go dark immediately.

The federal ban threatens expensive fines for all the app store providers if they continue to offer downloads or software updates that keep TikTok running.

Bartzen Culver said Apple and Google will most certainly remove TikTok from their app stores Sunday, and there will be no more updates. "The penalties in this law for those entities are quite severe. So they will not be ignoring this law."

With the inauguration set to take place the day after the ban, the Biden administration says it will be up to President-Elect Trump's administration to decide if it will enforce the law.

TikTok users are hopeful for a last minute save when Trump returns to the White House. During his last presidency, President Trump supported banning TikTok, but during his 2024 presidential campaign said he'd like to see TikTok saved. There is no word yet on if he has plans to take any action on the matter once he takes office.