TikTok users prepare for the impact as the US ban date approaches

TikTok was the subject of anxious expectation around the United States on Saturday as a government ban threatened to cut off access to the Chinese-owned app that has influenced internet culture, fueled small companies, and enthralled almost half of all Americans.

The business said late Friday that it will shut down in the US on Sunday unless President Joe Biden’s administration guarantees firms like Apple and Google that they won’t be subject to enforcement measures after the ban is in place.

TikTok, which has about 170 million domestic users and generates an estimated $20 billion in income annually, would be the first major social media app to be shut down in the United States. The ban would be implemented under a statute signed by President Joe Biden in April.

The platform has until Sunday to terminate its U.S. operation or sever its connection with its parent company, ByteDance, located in China, in order to address fears that it was a national security danger.

The restriction was unanimously reaffirmed by Supreme Court justices on Friday, and a White House statement implied that Biden would not intervene to preserve TikTok before the deadline.

If Biden doesn’t decide to formally request a 90-day extension of the deadline, businesses that host the app or provide services to TikTok may be held legally responsible. Whether TikTok’s commercial partners, such as Apple (AAPL.O), Alphabet (GOOGL.O), Google, and Oracle (ORCL.N), will continue to do business with the company before Trump takes office on Monday is unclear.

The app’s future was uncertain, which caused users—who were primarily younger—to rush to alternatives like RedNote, which is located in China. Ahead of the ban, rivals Meta (META.O) and Snap (SNAP.N) saw an increase in their stock prices this month as investors placed bets on a surge in users and advertising revenue.

In what one CEO called a “hair on fire” moment, marketing businesses that depend on TikTok have hurried to build backup plans this week despite months of common wisdom that a solution would emerge to keep the app operational.

There have been indications that TikTok may return under the new U.S. President Donald Trump, who has called for the Supreme Court to postpone the ban’s execution last month in order to seek a “political resolution” of the problem.

On Friday, Trump stated that he will make the final decision on the TikTok app, but he gave no specifics about his plans. He was reportedly considering issuing an executive order that would halt the TikTok sale-or-ban law’s implementation for 60 to 90 days, according to media sources.

A source informed Reuters that Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, intends to sit among prominent guests invited by Trump at the U.S. presidential inauguration on January 20.

The rapidly expanding company has drawn interest from suitors, including former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, who experts predict may be worth up to $50 billion. TikTok has disputed it, but media sources claim Beijing has also discussed selling the company’s U.S. operations to Elon Musk, a billionaire and Trump supporter.

Individually owned Institutional investors like BlackRock and General Atlantic own around 60% of ByteDance, with the company’s founders and staff holding 20% apiece. It employs over 7,000 people in the United States.