A TikTok ban in the US that's been in the works for years started early on Saturday with the company locking down US users — but the entire saga remains more about politics than national security.

TikTok said it will be "forced to go dark" on Jan. 19 unless the Biden administration guarantees the divest-or-ban law won’t be enforced.

TikTok plans to keep paying U.S. employees even if the Supreme Court does not overturn a law that would force the sale of the short-video app in the U.S. or ban it, the company's leadership said in an internal memo reviewed by Reuters on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court rejected TikTok's appeal to halt a law banning the app in the U.S. unless Chinese parent ByteDance sells its stake by Jan. 19.

Could Elon Musk save TikTok in the US? China weighs option to sell the controversial TikTok social media app's US operations ahead of looming ban

Starting Sunday, if the company is not sold, app stores and cloud providers who continue to host it will face billions of dollars in fines.

TikTok is preparing to go dark for U.S. users this Sunday if the Supreme Court does not grant it emergency appeal to halt a law that would ban the app unless parent ByteDance divests its stake in TikTok,

The law to effectively ban social media app TikTok was officially upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday. The case, which has become a landmark moment of free speech versus national security, has reached a climax after President Joe Biden signed an act to make TikTok illegal for distribution in the U.