Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban, as expected

Bad but largely unsurprising news for TikTokers today, as the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the app’s appeal to delay its impending ban. “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 wrote in its opinion, issued Friday morning (via Variety). “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.”

“We conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights,” the ruling continued. 

In a bipartisan bill passed last year, congress expressed concern over TikTok parent company ByteDance’s ties to the Chinese government. Technically, the Beijing-based company is subject to oversight by the Chinese Communist Party, but the company claims, per Variety, that the government has never requested user data, and they wouldn’t turn it over if it did. That didn’t sway the Court. “Data collection and analysis is a common practice in this digital age,” it said in its opinion. “But TikTok’s scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, justify differential treatment to address the Government’s national security concerns.”

The fight over TikTok is also playing out in a different branch of government. Biden officials indicated that they were leaving enforcement of the ban in president-elect Trump’s hands, which he seemingly responded to in a post on Truth Social. “I just spoke to Chairman Xi Jinping of China,” he wrote. “It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately. We discussed balancing Trade, Fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects.” Today, he also responded to the Supreme Court’s opinion, writing, “My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!”

While the actual bill only states that TikTok can’t be hosted or updated by the app store, the company has indicated that they intend to go fully dark when the ban goes into effect on Sunday. When users open the app, they’ll receive a popup directing them to a website with more information; they’ll also have a chance to download their personal data. Trump, however, is reportedly considering issuing an executive order that would suspend enforcement of the sell-or-ban law for 60 to 90 days, leaving the administration time to negotiate a sale or other solution, per The Washington Post. According to The New York Times, TikTok CEO Shou Chew has been invited to sit in a “position of honor on the dais” at Trump’s inauguration, so the fate of the app is clearly on his mind in some capacity.

Meanwhile, multiple individuals have expressed interest in purchasing the app, including YouTuber MrBeast, Shark Tank‘s Kevin O’Leary, and reportedly Elon Musk, although a TikTok spokesperson previously called that last option “pure fiction.” TikTok users themselves are already beginning to respond to the impending ban by migrating en masse to RedNote (Xiaohongshu), a Mandarin-language social media app. We’ll see what happens to the burgeoning international community on the platform if Trump does end up delaying the ban.