Ruling from Supreme Court upholds nationwide ban on TikTok unless ByteDance sells, but official says Biden won’t enforce it
TikTok’s hold on the United States market remains in doubt, after the US Supreme Court upheld the divest or ban law (known as the ‘Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.’)
The Guardian and other media outlets reported that the Supreme Court has sided with the national security arguments, that the social media app is a tool that can be exploited by a hostile nation state, namely China.
TikTok has already been preparing to shutdown its US operations on Sunday 19 January 2025, the deadline when a federal ban is set to take effect. This is just one day before Donald Trump assumes power on Monday 20 January.
Supreme Court
US President Joe Biden had in April 2024 signed the bill into law that gave Chinese owner ByteDance up to a year to divest TikTok, or face a nationwide ban across the United States.
TikTok is already banned on US federal devices. A majority of US states have also banned the app on state-owned devices.
TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance has always stated that it would rather shutter the app in the US rather than sell it, and this Supreme Court ruling on Friday 17 January will no doubt add to the dismay of its 170 million American users, as well as the platform’s content creators.
TikTok’s attorneys had argued late last week that the first amendment should have protected the app from the US Congress’s legislation.
Legitimate concerns
But the Supreme Court disagreed, writing that US Congress has legitimate concerns with TikTok, and the power to deal with them:
“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the court ruled.
“But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary. For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ first amendment rights.”
Justice Neil Gorsuch reportedly expressed reservations about the TikTok sale-or-ban bill, but still voted to uphold the law.
TikTok had earlier this week denied a Bloomberg report that the Chinese government was considering a plan that would see Elon Musk acquire TikTok’s US operations, in order to keep the app from being effectively banned in America.
The Washington Post meanwhile reported President-elect Donald Trump is considering issuing an executive order to suspend enforcement of a shutdown for 60 to 90 days.
Biden enforcement?
A glimmer of hope had also been offered earlier on Friday, after the Associated Press cited a US official as saying Thursday that President Joe Biden won’t enforce a ban on TikTok, instead leaving its fate in the hands of President-elect Donald Trump.
The official reportedly said the outgoing Biden administration was leaving the implementation of the law – and the potential enforcement of the ban – to Trump.
It comes as TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration and be granted a prime seating location on the dais, along tech billionaires such as Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
There is no doubt that Trump, who in his first term had favoured a ban on TikTok, has changed his mind on a TikTok ban.
Late last month, Trump had urged the Supreme Court to intervene and forcibly delay implementation of Biden’s ban to give him time to find a “political resolution.”
The Associated Press reported that Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, said in an interview on Wednesday that the president-elect is exploring options to “preserve” TikTok.
