US Supreme Court Upholds Law Mandating TikTok Ban Starting Sunday

The Supreme Court in its ruling held that the risk to national security posed by TikTok's ties to China overcomes concerns about limiting speech by the app or its 170 million users in the United States.

TikTok said it will have to "go dark" this weekend unless the outgoing Biden administration assures the company it won't enforce a shutdown of the popular app after the Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the federal law banning the app unless it's sold by its China-based parent company.

The Supreme Court in its ruling held that the risk to national security posed by TikTok's ties to China overcomes concerns about limiting speech by the app or its 170 million users in the United States.

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The decision came against the unusual political agitation of President-elect Donald Trump, who vowed that he could negotiate a solution, and the administration of President Joe Biden, which has signaled it won't enforce the law—passed with overwhelming bipartisan support—beginning Sunday, his final full day in office.

TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement, noting that actions to implement the law will fall to the new administration.

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TikTok issued a statement late Friday saying "statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok's availability to over 170 million Americans."


Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19," the statement said.

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A sale does not seem likely and, while experts have said the app will not disappear from existing users' phones once the law takes effect, new users won't be able to download it and updates won't be available. That will eventually render the app unworkable, the Justice Department has said in court filings.

Trump, who is aware that TikTok is popular and that he has 14.7 million followers on the app, is on the opposite side of the argument than prominent Senate Republicans who blame the Chinese owner of TikTok for not selling it before now. Trump said in a Truth Social post shortly before the decision was issued that TikTok was among the topics in his conversation Friday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

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TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who is expected to attend Trump's inauguration, used the app to thank the incoming president for "his commitment to work with us to keep TikTok available."

It's unclear what options are open to Trump, a Republican, once he is sworn in as president Monday. The law allowed for a 90-day pause in the restrictions on the app if there had been progress toward a sale before it took effect. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who defended the law at the Supreme Court for the Democratic Biden administration, told the justices last week that it's unclear whether the possibility of a sale once the law is in effect could trigger a 90-day reprieve for TikTok. The ruling delves into the First Amendment and national security interests in the ever-evolving world of social media, and the justices recognized in their opinion that the new landscape has proven challenging to navigate since they know relatively little about it.

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"Congress has concluded that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns about TikTok's data collection practices and its connection to a foreign adversary," the court said in an unsigned opinion, concluding that the law "does not infringe on petitioners' First Amendment rights."

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch filed brief separate opinions expressing some concerns about the outcome but voting to affirm.

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Without question, the relief Congress and the President chose here is dramatic," Gorsuch wrote. Still, he said he was persuaded by the argument that China could get access to "vast troves of personal information about tens of millions of Americans."

Just hours after its release, digital rights groups trashed the high court's decision.

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"Today's unprecedented decision upholding the TikTok ban harms the free expression of hundreds of millions of TikTok users in this country and around the world," said Kate Ruane, a director at the Washington-based Center for Democracy & Technology, which has supported TikTok's challenge to the federal law.

Content creators who opposed the law also worried about the effect on their business if TikTok shuts down. “I’m very, very concerned about what’s going to happen over the next couple weeks,” said Desiree Hill, owner of Crown’s Corner mechanic shop in Conyers, Georgia. “And very scared about the decrease that I’m going to have in reaching customers and worried I’m going to potentially lose my business in the next six months.”

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At arguments, justices were informed by a lawyer for TikTok and ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese technology company that is its parent, just how difficult it would be to consummate a deal, especially since Chinese law restricts the sale of the proprietary algorithm that has made the social media platform wildly successful.

The app enables one to view hundreds of videos within about half an hour as some take just a few seconds to appear, said a lawsuit last year filed by Kentucky that TikTok is built to be addictive and damages the mental health of children. The company has denied claims in more than a dozen states which also filed similar suits.

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The battle over TikTok's alleged connections to China has become the focal point for the larger battle between Washington and Beijing.

"ByteDance and its Chinese Communist masters had nine months to sell TikTok before the Sunday deadline," Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., wrote on X. "The very fact that Communist China refuses to permit its sale reveals exactly what TikTok is: a communist spy app. The Supreme Court correctly rejected TikTok's lies and propaganda masquerading as legal arguments."

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The U.S. has stated it is concerned about TikTok gathering massive volumes of user data, including highly sensitive information regarding what users watch, which can be forcedly transferred to the Chinese government. The officials also have warned the algorithm that propels what one sees on the app is open to manipulation by Chinese authorities to control content in a way that's difficult to be traced.

According to TikTok, the U.S. hasn't provided proof that China tried to alter content on its platform in the United States or accessed the data of American users on TikTok.

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Biden signed the legislation into law in April. The law marked the culmination of a years-long saga in Washington over TikTok, which the government has said poses a national security risk.

TikTok, which filed a lawsuit against the government last year over the law, has long denied it could be used as a tool of Beijing. A three-judge panel consisting of two Republican appointees and a Democratic appointee unanimously upheld the law in December, prompting TikTok's quick appeal to the Supreme Court.

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Without a sale to an approved buyer, the law bars app stores operated by Apple, Google and others from offering TikTok beginning Sunday. Internet hosting services also will be prohibited from hosting TikTok.

ByteDance has said it won't sell. But some investors have been eyeing it, including Trump's former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and billionaire businessman Frank McCourt. McCourt's Project Liberty initiative has said it and its unnamed partners have presented a proposal to ByteDance to acquire TikTok's U.S. assets. The consortium, which includes "Shark Tank" host Kevin O'Leary, did not disclose the financial terms of the offer.

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McCurt, in a statement following the ruling, said his group was "ready to work with the company and President Trump to complete a deal."

Prelogar told the justices last week that having the law take effect "might be just the jolt" ByteDance needs to reconsider its position.

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