TikTok says it plans to go offline on Sunday, January 19th if the Biden administration doesn’t intervene.
The company confirms earlier reporting that it will be “forced to go dark” on the 19th unless the outgoing administration provides a “definitive statement” assuring its “most critical service providers” that they won’t be held liable for breaking the law. Those providers include Apple and Google, which together distribute TikTok through their app stores, and its hosting partners, which include Amazon and Oracle.
TikTok’s statement follows Friday’s Supreme Court ruling that upheld the law banning the app unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, divests its ownership stake. Shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling, TikTok CEO Shou Chew appealed to President-elect Donald Trump in a video but didn’t give any indication of what might happen when the law goes into effect at midnight on Saturday.
Unfortunately for TikTok, the White House has already made clear that it intends to punt the fate of the app to Donald Trump, who has promised to save it and is set to be sworn in as president on Monday, January 20th. Trump said on Friday that he spoke with China President Xi Jinping about “balancing trade, fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects.”
“President Biden’s position on TikTok has been clear for months, including since Congress sent a bill in overwhelming, bipartisan fashion to the President’s desk: TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law,” the White House said in a statement on Friday. “Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice, which is tasked with enforcing the TikTok ban by fining its US service providers $5,000 per user with access to the app, has signaled that it’s still behind the ban.
“Authoritarian regimes should not have unfettered access to millions of Americans’ sensitive data,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Friday. “The Court’s decision affirms that this Act protects the national security of the United States in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution.”
As the ban deadline gets nearer, politicians who voted for it have started flipping by arguing that ByteDance should have more time to divest. According to The New York Times, Senator Chuck Schumer told President Biden that allowing a ban to happen would “damage his legacy.”
You can read TikTok’s full statement about shutting down below:
The statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans.
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.
In a Friday night bulletin, TikTok issued a statement on what it calls a “possible shutdown” after tomorrow. In short, TikTok does not plan to remain operational in the United States through the weekend despite the Biden White House deferring ban enforcement to the Trump White House.
Sonnet just announced its new Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock, the first dock of its kind to ship. The Echo 13 includes four Thunderbolt 5 ports along with a host of other I/O. If you own a , or an M4 Pro or M4 Max MacBook Pro, you’ll be able to take advantage of the extra bandwidth provided by Thunderbolt 5. But even if you’re using an older Mac with Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4, the Echo 13 will be fully compatible.
Seven-year-old electric vehicle startup Canoo has filed for bankruptcy and will “cease operations immediately.” The company is liquidating its assets in a Chapter 7 proceeding in the Delaware Bankruptcy Court. The company said in a press release published late Friday that it was “in discussions with foreign sources of capital” that proved unsuccessful, and also […]
A law professor cited by CBS News called Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris “...so ill grounded that it comes close to being sanctionable as frivolous.” But now, the The Wall Street Journal reports that executives at CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global, have discussed settling the suit while “gaming out options to reduce friction with the incoming administration” ahead of a government review of its merger with Skydance.
The paper reports that incoming FCC chairman and censor-in-chief Brendan Carr warned execs last year that presidential dissatisfaction with CBS News will make a review tougher. He’s also publicly displayed that view, saying during a Fox News interview in November, “...CBS has a transaction before the FCC. I’m pretty confident that news distortion complaint over the CBS 60 Minutes transcript is something that is likely to arise in the context of the FCC’s review of that transaction.”
The lawsuit claims that in airing two differently edited versions of Harris’ response to a question about the war in Gaza, “CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news.”
But instead of mounting a defense of free speech against a lawsuit and Trump’s accusations that the network said were false and completely without merit, Paramount is considering following the example of Disney and tech oligarchs who will line up at the inauguration like Mark Zuckerberg.
The ABC News owner agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential foundation and museum to settle a defamation lawsuit in December. Zuckerberg sharply redirected Meta’s policies to the right while meeting with Trump, reportedly “in part to mediate a lawsuit Trump brought against Facebook and Zuckerberg in 2021 over the platform’s suspension of Trump’s account after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.”
TikTok said its services will go dark Sunday unless the Biden administration gives a definitive statement providing assurances for the app's service providers.
You’d think that TikTok would have a Plan B by now.
It’s now clear the company never planned for a scenario in which it would lose to the Supreme Court. Maybe it couldn’t, given that the Chinese government ultimately has final say on a sale. Now, TikTok’s leaders are banking on Donald Trump to save them in a last-ditch effort that will unquestionably come with strings attached.
Politically, TikTok misplayed its hand at every turn of this multi-year saga. Executives repeatedly dismissed the possibility of a ban, even going so far as to literally laugh at the idea. They were blindsided by Congress overwhelmingly agreeing on a ban. Then, they lost on appeal to the Supreme Court with only a day left before the law goes into effect. The only leverage they seemingly have left is that Trump thinks the app helped him win the election — plus their willingness to let him extract whatever pound of flesh he wants.
TikTok backed itself into this corner technically, too. It spent over $1 billion on Project Texas to try and appease concerns about US data making its way to China. Amazingly, TikTok started Project Texas before the government gave its blessing, which of course never came. US...
Instagram’s profile grids will display content as rectangles instead of squares as part of a change rolling out “over the weekend,” Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said in an Instagram Story on Friday.
“I know some of you really like your squares. And square photos are sort of the heritage of Instagram. But at this point, most of what’s uploaded, both photos and videos, are vertical in their orientation,” Mosseri said. It’s a “bummer to overly crop them,” he added.
Mosseri recognizes that the change might be a “bit of a pain,” but he thinks that it’s a “transitional” pain. “I think people will, over the long run, be excited that more of their photos and more of their videos are actually visible as intended in the profile as opposed to aggressively cropped,” Mosseri said.
Mosseri’s justification is pretty similar to what he said in August when Instagram confirmed it was conducting a “limited test” of the change.
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Amazon has paused testing of its delivery drones following a crash involving two of its models, according to Bloomberg. It’s the latest setback for Amazon’s beleaguered Prime Air program, which aims to deliver around 500 million packages a year to customers by the end of the decade. Bloomberg reports two Amazon drones crashed in rainy […]
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The Federal Aviation Administration is ordering SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation into what caused the company's Starship rocket to explode mid-flight on January 16. Until the FAA approves SpaceX's investigation reported, the company won't be allowed to proceed with future Starship missions.
SpaceX's launch seemed to be going as planned prior to the explosion. Starship successfully made it off the launch pad and SpaceX was even able to catch the ship's boosters. But then, only eight and a half minutes after taking off, the Starship spacecraft exploded, according to SpaceX's post-launch blog post. In response to the sudden explosion, the FAA activated a "Debris Response Area" and slowed or diverted nearby flights to prevent further accidents, severely delaying flights from multiple airlines, according to CNBC.
The FAA's statement says that no one was injured by the falling debris but that its working "to confirm reports of public property damage on Turks and Caicos." The mishap investigation SpaceX performs will have to determine not only what caused the explosion, but also what corrective actions the company needs to take to prevent it from happening again. "Initial data indicates a fire developed in the aft section of the ship," SpaceX says.
This isn't the first time Starship has met an explosive end. Multiple Starship launches have ended with either SpaceX's boosters, the Starship spacecraft or both exploding. The company does appear to be getting better at catching and reusing its Super Heavy boosters, however. The successful catch that preceded the January 16 explosion is only the second time SpaceX has pulled it off. Its first successful Super Heavy catch was in October 2024.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/the-faa-is-grounding-spacexs-starship-after-its-latest-explosion-223535001.html?src=rss
A new rumor today suggests that the Camera app will get a dramatic overhaul as part of iOS 19 this year. In a video on YouTube, Jon Prosser reveals that the new Camera app in iOS 19 will feature a design that “mirrors the design ethos from visionOS.”
Top of the Ticker: CNN has been found liable by a Florida jury in its defamation case brought by Navy veteran Zachary Young. Young had accused the network of inflicting financial harm as a result of displaying his face onscreen alongside a Nov. 2021 story that discussed a "black market" that smuggled Afghanistan citizens out...
This post was created in partnership with Infinite Reality Immersive experiences are changing how brands, creators, and audiences engage online. And marketers who immerse themselves in technology like extended reality (XR) and AI will reap the benefits. At a live Adweek group chat at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, presented in partnership with Infinite Reality,...
