The Supreme Court upheld the TikTok ban. Here’s what happens now
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The Supreme Court has paved the way for TikTok to be banned in the U.S. on Sunday.
The high court on Friday unanimously upheld a new law that requires the social media app’s Chinese owner to sell off TikTok’s U.S. business or face a nationwide ban.
“Given just a handful of days after oral argument to issue an opinion, I cannot profess the kind of certainty I would like to have about the arguments and record before us,” Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote. “All I can say is that, at this time and under these constraints, the problem appears real and the response to it not unconstitutional.”
The future of the popular short-form video app has been precarious since 2020, when then-President Trump moved to shut it down because of national security concerns. Trump and others raised the prospect that TikTok owner ByteDance could assist the Chinese government by sharing the data it collects from its roughly 170 million American users, embedding malicious software in the app or helping to spread disinformation.
After President Biden signed the law in April, which set a Jan. 19 deadline for the ban to take effect, TikTok responded by suing the U.S. government. The company said a ban would violate 1st Amendment rights and argued that there was “no support for the idea” that its Chinese ownership posed national security risks.
What will happen over the next few days is murky. Current administration officials have said Biden won’t enforce the ban and would leave the app’s fate to Trump, who takes office Monday.
Late Friday, TikTok said the White House and the Department of Justice had “failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance” that it would not penalize TikTok’s service providers if they continued to make the app available Sunday.
“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement,” the company said, “unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on Jan. 19.”
Was the decision expected?
Pretty much. The Supreme Court justices sounded highly skeptical of TikTok’s free-speech defense during oral arguments on Jan. 10, signaling they were not likely to strike down the law.
The justices, both conservative and liberal, said Congress was concerned about the threat to national security because TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, is headquartered in China. They said the law in question was not an effort to restrict freedom of speech.
“Congress doesn’t care about what’s on TikTok,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said. “Congress is not fine with a foreign adversary gathering all this data on 170 million Americans.”
Can I still download the app?
As of Sunday, it will be illegal for app stores such as Apple and Google Play to distribute TikTok or issue updates to the social media app. Companies that don’t abide face civil penalties of $5,000 per user.
You won’t be able to access TikTok from your browser, either.
What if I already have TikTok?
You’ll still have the app on your mobile device, but TikTok is now saying that it plans to immediately shut it down in the U.S. on Sunday.
A number of TikTok users appear to be turning to an app called RedNote — more commonly known to its majority-Chinese audience by its Chinese name, Xiaohongshu.
What is Trump’s position now?
Trump has reversed course on TikTok since his first term, joining the social media app in June during his presidential election and posting, “Those who want to save TikTok in America, vote for Trump.”
In recent weeks, the president-elect has been trying to prevent the app from being banned in the U.S., submitting an amicus brief to the Supreme Court and asking it to delay the Jan. 19 deadline. He also met with TikTok Chief Executive Shou Chew at Mar-a-Lago last month.
Shortly after the Supreme Court decision was released, Trump posted on his Truth Social account: “The Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it. My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!”
Then on Saturday Trump told NBC News that he “most likely” would grant TikTok a 90-day reprieve on Monday.
In a TikTok video posted Friday morning, Chew said: “I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States. This is a strong stand for the 1st Amendment and against arbitrary censorship.”
Could Trump stop the ban from going into effect?
The timing of the ban — the day before Trump’s inauguration on Monday — makes things tricky. Only the sitting president can issue a 90-day stay on the ban and can do so only if a buyer has taken concrete steps toward a purchase.
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Chew is planning to attend Trump’s inauguration and will be seated on the dais.
Is a last-minute sale of TikTok possible?
It could happen, but ByteDance’s priority had been to get the law struck down and maintain ownership of the app. The company has signaled that it does not want to sell.
Are there any serious bidders out there for TikTok’s U.S. business?
On Jan. 8, an investor group spearheaded by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt submitted an offer to ByteDance, the group said. The group is calling itself the People’s Bid for TikTok and includes Kevin O’Leary, one of the investors from the reality television show “Shark Tank.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
What is the People’s Bid for TikTok pledging to do with the app?
If its offer is successful, the group would rebuild the platform in a way that prioritizes the privacy of TikTok users, said Tomicah Tillemann, president of Project Liberty, a New York-based organization that assembled the bid.
“What we are focused on is providing a clear path forward that will allow for the preservation of the dynamic, vibrant community that is TikTok under American ownership,” he said.
“Our vision for TikTok is grounded in the idea that people should have a choice in how their data is used, a voice in the way platforms operate and a stake in the economic value that they create online.”
Anyone else?
On Monday, social media personality MrBeast wrote on X: “Okay fine, I’ll buy Tik Tok so it doesn’t get banned.” He later followed up and said he’d had “so many billionaires reach out to me since I tweeted this, let’s see if we can pull this off.”
The same day, Bloomberg reported that the Chinese government was considering selling the U.S. arm of TikTok to Elon Musk. But in a statement to The Times, a spokesperson for TikTok called the report “pure fiction.”
How are TikTok influencers feeling?
Los Angeles is a major hub for content creators, who say they’ve been preparing for this moment for years.
Nathan Kehn, 35, joined TikTok about four years ago, posting cat videos and other funny content. He said he was disappointed that the government could “just come through and wipe out people’s livelihoods like that.”
“It’s super unfair,” he said of the ban. “A lot of my friends are all TikTok and this is about to ruin a lot of people’s lives.”
Kehn, who lives in Sherman Oaks and has about 800,000 TikTok followers, started planning ahead by growing his Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat accounts just in case TikTok was forced to shut down.
“Part of being a social media content creator is I’ve never put my eggs in one basket because I don’t know how long any of it’s ever going to last,” he said. “I learned a long time ago, you can’t trust one platform.”
What would happen to TikTok’s employees locally?
TikTok has a significant presence in Culver City, employing roughly 440 people there, according to city estimates. The company has been an important tool for video creators, small businesses, music artists and Hollywood studios.
In an internal memo obtained by The Verge this week, employees were told that TikTok’s offices would stay open regardless.
“The bill is not written in a way that impacts the entities through which you are employed, only the US user experience [of TikTok],” the memo said.
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