Will New Yorkers Still Be Able To Use TikTok on January 19th?

Many users of the popular social media app are wondering if it will go dark on January 19th or if it will remain functional. 

On Sunday many TikTok users are awaiting the fate of an app that they held near and dear. Whether it was just to watch videos, create videos, or operate a small business the ban will have an impact on many. The US has the second most TikTok users in the world with 137.9 million.

As of January 19th TikTok will have a federal ban unless it is sold to a company that is not owned by China. The fear is that the Chinese government uses TikTok to spy on us and take information from our phones. They believe TikTok is a security risk.

Right now officials have told both Apple and Google they need to be prepared to remove TikTok from their app stores on Sunday after a federal appeals court upheld a law that would require ByteDance, TikTok's parents company, to divest in it by January 19th or the app will be banned. While many reports emerged for potential buyers, such as Elon Musk and YouTube personality Mr. Beast, no such deal has been reached yet.

Read More: New York Influencer Says TikTok Ban Would Be "Catastrophic" For Many

How will this ban work and will it simply just stop working? That's complicated. On Thursday the Biden Administration said they were working with TikTok to assure that users were still going to be able to use it while they try to navigate all of this. What that means is that while there is still a ban, the United States is trying to figure out a way to make it work.

According to Time, TikTok is prepared to completely shutdown on Sunday. Users would log in and be met with a page that said the app is banned. TikTok will be completely dark.

Unfortunately the way to make it work is to devest in Byte dance, which Byte Dance has said on multiple occasions they would not be doing.