TikTok will shut down by January 19

Photo Credit: TikTok (Culver City Office)

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments over whether or not to uphold the TikTok ban looming on January 19. TikTok has told its LA staff impacted by wild fires to keep working from home or take sick days as it preps for ban.

TikTok says it could shut down the social media site in the United States on January 19 unless the Supreme Court takes action tomorrow (January 10). “Absent such relief, that would shut down TikTok—one of the nation’s most popular speech platforms—for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users on the eve of a presidential inauguration,” reads a TikTok legal filing.

President-elect Trump also sent a plea to the Supreme Court to stay the TikTok ban until after his inauguration due to “foreign policy concerns.” Trump has the authority to issue a 90-day delay of the law after January 19, though Congress would have to certify that ‘evidence of significant progress’ toward ByteDance divesting from TikTok would have to take place.

If TikTok does shut down on January 19, it won’t disappear from phones where it is already installed. Much like Musi, those who had the app installed will continue to be able to use it—though no updates and no new downloads will happen. Apple and Google would be required to remove the app from their respective stores after the ban is in place.

Meanwhile as wildfires are devastating large portions of the Los Angeles area, TikTok’s LA-based employees are being told to continue working from home—or take sick days. The Culver City office remains closed due to power outages caused by high winds, which is the same position many TikTok employees find themselves in.

TikTok employees hail from all over the broader LA area—where many homes are without power, WiFi, or both. TikTok leadership told employees the office would be closed from January 8 through January 12. Those days are designated as work from home days as opposed to days off. TechCrunch reports several TikTok employees are without power to their homes—nearly four million people are impacted.