TikTok prepares to shut down app in US on Sunday, sources say


 WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, Jan 15 (Reuters) - TikTok plans to shut U.S. operations of its social media app used by 170 million Americans on Sunday, when a federal ban is set to take effect, barring a last-minute reprieve, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The Washington Post reported President-elect Donald Trump, whose term begins a day after a ban would start, is considering issuing an executive order to suspend enforcement of a shutdown for 60 to 90 days. The newspaper did not say how Trump could legally do so.

"TikTok itself is a fantastic platform," Trump's incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News on Wednesday. "We're going to find a way to preserve it but protect people's data."

A White House official told Reuters Wednesday President Joe Biden has no plans to intervene to block a ban in his final days in office if the Supreme Court fails to act and added Biden is legally unable to intervene absent a credible plan from ByteDance to divest TikTok.

Shutting down TikTok in the U.S. could make it unavailable for users in many other countries, the company said in a court filing last month, because hundreds of service providers in the U.S. help make the platform available to TikTok users around the world - and could no longer do so starting Sunday.

TikTok said in the court filing an order was needed to "avoid interruption of services for tens of millions of TikTok users outside the United States."

TikTok had said that the prohibitions would eventually make the app unusable, noting in the filing that "data centers would almost certainly conclude that they can no longer store" TikTok code, content, or data.

The sources said the shutdown aims to protect TikTok service providers from legal liability and make it easier to resume operations if President-elect Donald Trump opted to roll back any ban.

Shutting down such services does not require longer planning, one of the sources said, noting that most operations have been continuing as usual as of this week. If the ban gets reversed later, TikTok would be able to restore service for U.S. users in a relatively short time, sources said.

TikTok and its Chinese parent, ByteDance, did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

U.S. tech publication The Information first reported the news late on Tuesday.

Privately held ByteDance is about 60% owned by institutional investors such as BlackRock and General Atlantic, while its founders and employees own 20% each. It has more than 7,000 employees in the United States.

President Joe Biden last April signed a law requiring ByteDance to sell its U.S. assets by Jan. 19, or face a nationwide ban. Last week, the Supreme Court seemed inclined to uphold the law, despite calls from Trump and lawmakers to extend the deadline.

TikTok and ByteDance have sought, at the very least, a delay in the implementation of the law, which they say violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech.

TikTok said in the court filing last month it estimated one-third of its 170 million American users would stop accessing the platform if the ban lasted a month.

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