The US Supreme Court has ruled that a TikTok ban will go ahead unless it is sold by its parent company.

The Court ruled that the ban will come into effect on Sunday, however US President Joe Biden said he will not enforce the ban in his last few hours in office.

President Biden will leave the decision to President-elect Donald Trump following his inauguration on Monday.

The US's top judges were deciding whether to overturn the ban after hearing appeals from TikTok creators and its lawyers.

TikTok's owners Bytedance have repeatedly said they will not sell the app which would stop the ban coming into force.

President-elect Trump also tried to get the ban delayed so he could make a decision on it once he was in office.

The Supreme Court, however, has decided to stick with the original ban.

iPhone showing the TikTok app in the far-left corner, Alamy

Now, one day before Donald Trump returns to the White House, the social media app used by 170 million Americans will be banned.

On Sunday, a few things could happen, especially now President Biden has said he will not enforce the ban.

There are reports the company will pull the plug for US users.

When they attempt to open the app, people will see a pop-up message directing them to a website with information about the ban, Reuters is reporting.

"Go dark"

At a Supreme Court hearing last week, TikTok's lawyer said the app would "go dark" in the US if the ban came into force.

Although there are a lot of American TikTok users, more than 1.5 billion people use TikTok worldwide, so the company could decide it can manage without its US influencers.

If Donald Trump decides to enforce the ban, Apple and Google may remove it from their app stores.

That will mean no new users can download the app and there will not be any updates.

Reporting by IRN

Feature image shows a phone displaying the TikTok logo against the US flag.