Two high tech US companies are critical as to what TikTok users will see when the US ban on the Chinese app will come into effect overnight Sunday.
Both Oracle and Amazon Web Services play a vital role in the serving up of TikTok data with Oracle managing the data centres where billions of the Chinese Companies 40-second videos are stored.
What could happen if the ban is not given a reprieve by incoming President Donald Trump is that an effort message similar to a Windows 404 error that appears when a browser cannot access content.
Global software Company Oracle one of the app’s leading server providers, and if the decision is taken to take TikTok off line all Oracle will have to do is terminate access to hundreds of servers housing Tik Tok content.
What’s not known is how they will isolate Countries where TikTok is not banned.
Users have already taken to other social media platforms such as X to report being locked out of the app, posting images of a pop-up message which says it “isn’t available right now”.
President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday that he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a potential ban after he takes office on Monday.
“The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate,” Trump told NBC. “If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday.”
Under a law passed last year and upheld on Friday by a unanimous Supreme Court, the platform has until Sunday morning (4pm AEDT) to cut ties with its China-based parent ByteDance or shut down its US operation to resolve concerns it po
Senior executives at Oracle, have already warned staff to prepare to shut down servers that host the U.S.
The ban that kicks in on Monday Australian time is set to create problems for providers of services to TikTok with many sets to be cut off from lucrative revenue streams.
Oracle CEO Safra Catz is expected to give the final go ahead to cut off the TikTok servers, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plan.
Her involvement reflects the magnitude of the shutdown with over 170 million users in the U.S set to go dark.
TikTok is one of Oracle’s biggest cloud customers, and Oracle has warned shareholders that the ban would hurt its revenue and profits.
Some of that process is handled by Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing business, and Akamai Technologies, a content delivery company. Amazon and Akamai help distribute TikTok content, alongside Oracle. Under the law, they also have to stop providing services to TikTok.
“What users will see is essentially a 404 that says, ‘Website not found”.
The New York Times claims that Oracle is also facing pressure in Washington to make sure that people who have created TikTok videos can download them and keep them available for access.
This means that Oracle and TikTok would have to create an environment that allows video owners to log in to their personal account and see their own videos but preventing them from viewing other people’s videos.
“Conceptually, this is relatively straightforward,” claim observers.
There are a lot of variables that could change the direction Oracle goes. The Biden administration has said that it won’t enforce the act, so the company could decide not to take action on Sunday,
Mr. O’Donnell said. And the Trump administration has raised the possibility of exercising a clause in the law that would keep the app running for at least 90 days.