Time is ticking for TikTok users in the U.S.

The application, owned by its parent company ByteDance, has stated the app could be pulled from U.S. users beginning on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, a mandate was issued to the China-based company requiring it to sell the application to a U.S.-based company or face a ban that would go into effect on Jan. 19.

The app launched onto the market in 2012, founded by Zhang Yiming, and debuted in the United States six years later. The U.S. government has expressed concerns over how the application is using user data and spreading misinformation, according to The New York Times.

“For years, the Chinese government has sought to build detailed profiles about Americans – where we live and work, who our friends and coworkers are, what our interests are, and what our vices are,”  Elizabeth Barchas Prelogar, the 48th Solicitor General of the United States, told the Supreme Court in a hearing held Friday Jan. 10, per CNN.

She also claims TikTok’s “immense data set” allows China to have access to “a powerful tool for harassment, recruitment and espionage.”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh mentioned that the president and Congress “were concerned that China was accessing information about millions of Americans – tens of millions of Americans – including teenagers, people in their 20s” and believed the information could be used “to turn people, to blackmail people – people who a generation from now will be working in the FBI or the CIA or in the State Department.”

TikTok’s future is already being considered by U.S. parties who are interested in buying it from ByteDance. This includes “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary and Frank McCourt from the internet advocacy group Project Liberty. A proposal was already submitted ahead of the Jan. 10 hearing, notes Fortune.

According to McCourt, TikTok’s valuation is estimated at around $20 billion, while ByteDance shareholders set the app’s valuation at $268 billion.

TikTok has made it clear that it is against a ban in the United States and has no intention of selling to a U.S. company.

“The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue,” TikTok previously said in a statement to ABC News. “The TikTok ban, unless stopped, will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the U.S. and around the world on Jan. 19, 2025.”

As the Jan. 19 deadline approaches, U.S.-based TikTok users may no longer be able to access the app altogether. Reuters reports TikTok intends to “shut” the app for United States users if the ban goes into effect. This step would only be retracted if the Supreme Court decided against a ban, a close source told the outlet.

This contrasts with the United States mandate that states TikTok will no longer be available on the App Store or Google Play.