TikTok is reportedly planning to turn off the app for its US users if a proposed plan comes into effect on January 19th, just one day before Donald Trump’s inauguration as President of the United States. 
However, sources close to the Chinese social media app are hoping that the US Supreme Court intervenes at the 11th hour and blocks, or postpones the ban imposed by the outgoing Biden administration.
Reuters have reported that end-users who try to engage with the application on January 19th will be hit with a message that directs them to a website that provides information about the ban.
In April last year, US President Joe Biden categorised TikTok as a threat to national security, and signed legislation that compelled China-based ByteDance to sell off its US TikTok assets.
There have been some reports doing the rounds that Beijing is in talks with Elon Musk over the potential sales of US TikTok assets to the owner of Tesla and SpaceX, but a spokesperson for ByteDance described the rumours as ‘pure fiction’.
Under the proposed ban, the TikTok app would no longer be available for downloading on Google and Apple app stores.
Current users can still access the service, but will no longer be able to download updates, which will likely lead to the app degrading over time.
Legal representatives for TikTok and other content creators have claimed that the impending ban that will come into effect on January 19th violates users free speech rights.
TikTok lawyers and content creators maintain the impending ban violates the 170 million users’ free speech rights.
The US Supreme Court seemed to favour upholding the ban in a hearing on 10 January, but the nine judges have yet to issue a preliminary decision.
President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to hold-off on the hearing until he is sworn into office on 20 January.