TikTok is reportedly planning a total shutdown of the Chinese-owned video-sharing app when the law requiring the video-sharing app to be banned or sold goes into effect on Sunday.
The roughly 170 million US users trying to access the app will be greeted with a pop-up message directing them to a website with details about the ban, according to The Information.
Users will also be given the option to download their data from the app, sources familiar with the plan told the media.
The company’s plan goes beyond the scope of the law, which requires app store operators like Google and Apple to stop allowing TikTok downloads, but allows users who already have the app on their phones to continue using it.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Members of Congress and the Justice Department allege that TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, poses an unacceptable national security threat — capable of covertly manipulating content through its recommendation algorithm and mass collection of data, such as location tracking, among other risks.
TikTok has denied the allegations.
The Supreme Court could still decide to block the sale law before Sunday’s deadline, though it appears unlikely to do so. During oral arguments on TikTok’s appeal last week, all nine justices indicated that the national security concerns that led President Joe Biden to sign the law outweighed potential risks to free speech.
President-elect Trump — who returns to the White House on Monday — was once a staunch critic of TikTok but has recently signaled his opposition to the ban. His legal team has asked the Supreme Court to halt the ban so he can pursue a political settlement.
Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last month.
The sales bill passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support and was signed into law last April. It gives ByteDance 120 days to sell the app.
TikTok has argued that the new law is a de facto ban that violates the First Amendment. The company also claims it could not have sold the app within the 120-day timeframe of the invoice.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Chinese officials were considering selling the TikTok brand to Elon Musk — who already owns social media platform X and runs Tesla, which has extensive operations in China.
TikTok representatives dismissed that report as “pure fiction.”
Other potential TikTok suitors included former Trump Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and billionaire Frank McCourt, who has partnered with “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary in an effort to buy the brand and rebuild the algorithm her first on American soil.
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