Darren Lyn
17 January 2025•Update: 17 January 2025
HOUSTON, United States
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law that will ban TikTok in the US unless its China-based parent company divests from the popular social media app which is used by nearly 200 million Americans.
The divestment is unlikely to happen, as the deadline for the ban is this Sunday, Jan. 19. However, the date comes just one day before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration and President Joe Biden's administration has indicated that it does not plan to enforce the law before Trump is sworn into office.
The nation's highest court ruled that the divest-or-ban ultimatum does not violate the US Constitution's First Amendment freedom of speech and expression rights, siding with the Biden administration, even though Trump had urged the Supreme Court to delay the deadline so that he could negotiate a deal to keep TikTok running in the US.
"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 unsigned opinion. "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."
"Under these circumstances, we find the Government’s data collection justification sufficient to sustain the challenged provisions," the ruling continued.
The bipartisan law, which was passed by Congress and signed by BIden last April, gave TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, 270 days to divest from the app or be banned in the US.
It will ultimately be up to Trump whether he will keep TikTok online for the time being or enforce the ban once he officially takes office.
Trump had expressed sympathy with TikTok as the ban approached and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will attend Trump's inauguration.
There are reports that Trump is reportedly considering signing an executive order to circumvent the ban.
