TikTok Ban Finalized as Supreme Court Upholds Decision
The US Supreme Court has refused to block a ban on TikTok, which will see the Chinese-owned video app face shutdown on Sunday, the day before Donald Trump enters the White House.
The Court’s nine justices heard from lawyers representing TikTok and content creators that the ban would be a violation of free speech protections for the platform’s more than 170 million users in the US.
The US government argued that TikTok, unless sold, could be a tool for China to spy on and manipulate politics. A decision by the highest court needs to be reached within days. President-elect Donald Trump-who returns to the White House in just over a week-now argues against the ban.
The law forces parent company ByteDance to sell it in the US or cease operations on 19 January. The company has said it will not sell the short-form video platform.
This means Apple and Google are now compelled to remove TikTok from their mobile download stores on Sunday – the day before Mr Trump’s inauguration.
The video app has reportedly made plans to cease functioning – with a pop-up message to direct users to information about the ban.
However, ByteDance has so far refused to countenance selling the app, instead pursuing a series of legal challenges against the law which culminated in the Supreme Court appeal.
The Supreme Court had appeared ready to uphold the ban after oral arguments last week, where justices grilled TikTok’s attorneys over why they thought they should be allowed to block the law on first amendment grounds.
Trump had urged the Supreme Court to grant a stay of the ban until he was sworn in, saying he wanted to pursue a “political resolution”. About 170m Americans use TikTok.
On the campaign trail Mr Trump, who once tried to ban the app, had promised to “save TikTok”. Shou Zi Chew, its chief executive, is due to attend Mr Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
Officials of China reportedly discussed the possible deal involving Elon Musk: he could purchase the app through his social network, X, or participate in a deal somehow, although this claim was rebuffed by TikTok as “fiction”.
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