Tiktok's Chinese owner Bytedance has announced that it plans to shut down the app for Americans from Sunday.
American users should not expect Tiktok to suddenly be banned on Sunday, says one of the sources.
The background to the law passed last year is that Tiktok is accused of making it possible for China to spy on the 170 million American users and collect information about them.
Earlier in the week, reports emerged that the Chinese side is considering letting Elon Musk, owner of X, buy the business if the appeal does not go through.
Upon enforcement of the ban, the US government can ask Apple and Google to remove Tiktok from their app stores, which would prevent new downloads. Then the app would remain with the existing American users – unless Tiktok blocks their access.
Tiktok's lawyer Noel Francisco has stated that the app will "go dark" on Sunday if the judiciary fails to block the ban. A media report also claims that the company is planning a complete shutdown of the service in the USA.
As a result of the impending ban, many Americans have turned to other Chinese platforms, including Xiaohongshu, which on Tuesday was the most downloaded app in Apple's App store.
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