The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the federal law banning TikTok beginning Sunday unless it is sold by its China-based parent company, ByteDance, ruling that the potential risk to national security outweighs concerns about limiting speech for the app’s 170 million users in the United States.
The court found that TikTok’s ties to China posed sufficient concerns about data security to justify the ban, despite arguments that the law infringes on First Amendment rights. The decision confirms that ByteDance must divest its ownership of TikTok to avoid the law’s enforcement.
Although experts have noted that TikTok will not disappear immediately from existing users’ phones when the law takes effect on January 19, new users will no longer be able to download the app, and updates will no longer be available.
According to court filings by the Justice Department, this will eventually render the app non-functional as technology evolves and updates become essential.
The ruling comes amidst political turbulence, with President-elect Donald Trump vowing to resolve the issue once in office. Trump, a TikTok user with 14.7 million followers, has found himself at odds with prominent Senate Republicans who blame ByteDance for not securing a buyer in time.
Meanwhile, the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden has indicated that it will not enforce the ban during its last full day in office on Sunday.
The law includes a provision allowing a 90-day pause in enforcement if progress toward a sale is made before it takes effect. However, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who represented the Biden administration before the court, told the justices last week that it is unclear whether any movement toward a sale after January 19 would qualify for the 90-day extension.
During arguments, attorneys for TikTok and ByteDance described the challenges of completing a sale under current circumstances. Chinese law restricts the sale of TikTok’s proprietary algorithm, which is widely regarded as the key to the app’s immense popularity and success. These restrictions make negotiations complex and add significant obstacles to finalising any potential deal.
With the Supreme Court’s ruling now solidified, TikTok’s future in the United States remains uncertain. While the app will remain operational for existing users for now, the inability to acquire new downloads or updates will gradually erode its functionality, leaving millions of users and content creators grappling with its eventual demise.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
Follow us on:
