The Supreme Court on Sunday, January 19, upheld a law that effectively bans TikTok. The ruling ends TikTok's months-long legal battle against a law that would effectively force the ByteDance-owned app to shut down unless it sells its U.S. operations. For national security reasons.
As of Sunday, it will be illegal for app stores and internet hosting services to distribute social networks. TikTok warned that the app would simply “go dark” on Sunday, but it's unclear what exactly will happen once the ban goes into effect.
In an opinion released early Friday morning, the Supreme Court said it requested the ban in response to appeals from three groups: “the two TikTok operating companies and a group of TikTok users in the United States.” New Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Regulatory Applications Act — Rejected on First Amendment (free speech) grounds.
“Given that only a few days have elapsed between oral argument and opinion, I cannot profess with the degree of certainty I would like about the argument and record before me,” the court wrote in its unsigned opinion. It's written in a book. “At this point, all I can say under these constraints is that this problem is real and the response to it is not unconstitutional… It's one thing to support a foreign adversary. It's another thing to allow a foreign adversary to spy on Americans.”
Retaining the ban will move TikTok's fortunes to the next level. The question is whether President Trump will choose to intervene in an unusual way after taking office. Or whether there will be some form of sale.
Regarding the first point, President Trump wrote on Truth Social today that he had a conversation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, during which they discussed topics such as TikTok. He did not say what the outcome of that conversation was.
Regarding the second point, China is reportedly backing the idea of none other than Elon Musk purchasing the US version of the app.
Today's decision follows TikTok's argument that the law violates the First Amendment and that the social network needed additional time to get President-elect Donald Trump to act to save the app. The decision came just days after filing a lawsuit with the nation's highest court.
During the hearing, the Department of Justice (DOJ) argued that the law does not violate the First Amendment because it does not seek to restrict free speech on platforms or their algorithms. Surveillance is at the heart of the move to ban TikTok, with the Justice Department claiming that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to secretly hand over data on millions of Americans.
Throughout the legal battle, TikTok has argued that it is unable to sell the app's U.S. operations because China prevents it from exporting the social network's algorithms. The company also claimed that TikTok will be a fundamentally different service with a different algorithm.
Today, the Supreme Court summarized TikTok's history since 2020 in an opinion. But it also concluded that the law, as written, “appears to be adequately adapted to the problem it seeks to address.”
“Without a doubt, the relief that Congress and the President have chosen here is dramatic,” he acknowledged.
However, the Court also highlighted the difficulty of ruling on technology that is essentially a moving target in terms of what it can accomplish, both in terms of positive potential and harm.
In today's opinion, the court said, “We should be careful not to “embarrass ourselves in the future.''
President Biden signed the sales ban into law in April 2024. The bill followed long-standing claims by the U.S. government that TikTok's relationship with China poses a national security risk and exposes sensitive information about Americans to the Chinese government.
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