TikTok Threatens Shut Down

TikTok’s attorney’s on Friday reiterated the popular app will shut down, rather than make a last-minute deal to keep it active in the U.S., if the app’s looming ban is not overturned by the Supreme Court. The app, which boasts 170 million American users, is set to be removed from the U.S. on Jan. 19.

“At least as I understand it, we go dark,” TikTok attorney Noel Francisco said on Friday. “Essentially the platform shuts down.”

That comment comes after TikTok said in court filings in December that it planned to completely exit the U.S. if its ban is not canceled at the last minute.

Last April, President Joe Biden signed a law that called for TikTok to be banned unless ByteDance, the app’s Beijing-based parent company, sold its American operation. The chief concern U.S. lawmakers say they have with TikTok is that it could double as a spyware app for the Chinese government; TikTok, per Chinese law, is required to share user data with China’s communist government, if asked to do so.

Some big business names, including “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary, have said they are looking to buy TikTok before its ban goes into effect. But ByteDance, the New York Times reported on Friday, believes a sale is “not feasible.” That’s because the Chinese government — which would have to approve any deal — has indicated it will block any sales that includes ByteDance’s algorithm.

And if a long-shot deal were to take place, it would not come cheap; Wedbush managing director Dan Ives told TheWrap the price tag for TikTok would be a record-setting $300 billion. Either way, China’s government appears content forgoing a massive payday instead of seeing the app sold to a non-Chinese owner.