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Supreme Court to decide on TikTok ban by Sunday

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TikTok plans data download option for users

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Shutdown could affect TikTok users globally, court filing

states

(Adds details from reports suggesting Tiktok CEO being invited

for Trump inaugration and Biden considering ways to keep app

accessible beyond Sunday in paragraphs 7, 9 and 10; context in

paragraph 15)

By David Shepardson and Krystal Hu

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 report did not say how Trump could

legally do so.

The law signed in April mandates a ban on new TikTok

downloads on Apple ( AAPL ) or Google app stores if

Chinese parent ByteDance fails to divest the site.

Users who have downloaded TikTok would theoretically still

be able to use the app, except that the law also bars U.S.

companies starting Sunday from providing services to enable the

distribution, maintenance, or updating of it.

The Trump transition team did not have an immediate comment.

Trump has said he should have time after taking office to

pursue a "political resolution" of the issue.

"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."

The New York Times separately reported that Tiktok CEO has

been extended an invitation to attend the President-elect's

inaugration and sit in "a position of honor".

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.

However, a NBC report later said the Biden administration

has been weighing options to keep the social media platform

avaliable to users beyond Sunday, in a bid to defer the decision

to Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Monday.

"Americans shouldn't expect to see TikTok suddenly banned on

Sunday," an administration official told the broadcast network.

U.S. Senator Ed Markey on Wednesday sought unanimous consent

to extend the deadline for ByteDance to divest TikTok by 270

days but Republican Senator Tom Cotton blocked the proposal.

If it is banned, TikTok plans that users attempting to open

the app will see a pop-up message directing them to a website

with information about the ban, the people said, requesting

anonymity as the matter is not public.

"We go dark. Essentially, the platform shuts down," TikTok

lawyer Noel Francisco told the Supreme Court last week.

The company also plans to give users an option to download

all their data so that they can take a record of their personal

information, the sources said.

Users took to social media platform X to express their

disappointment with a potential ban on the app, in the run up to

Sunday when the ban takes effect. They also expressed their

happiness at reports on Trump considering ways to avert the ban.

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently deciding whether to

uphold the law and allow TikTok to be banned on Sunday, overturn

the law, or pause the law to give the court more time to make a

decision.

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.