By Andrew Chung and John Kruzel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds if its Chinese parent company ByteDance does not sell it, putting the popular short-video app on track to disappear in just a few seconds. two days. .
The court’s 9-0 decision throws the social media platform – and its 170 million American users – into limbo, and its fate in the hands of Donald Trump, who has vowed to rescue TikTok after returning to the presidency on Monday. .
The law was passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress last year and signed by President Joe Biden, although a growing chorus of lawmakers who voted for it now seek to keep TikTok operating in the United States.
TikTok, ByteDance and some of the app’s users challenged the law, but the Supreme Court decided that it did not violate the First Amendment protection of the United States Constitution against government restriction of free speech as they had argued.
ByteDance has done little to divest itself of TikTok before the Sunday deadline set by law. But the app shutdown could be brief. Trump, who tried to ban TikTok in 2020, has said he plans to take action to save the app.
“My decision on TikTok will be made in the not-too-distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!” Trump said in a social media post.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will attend Trump’s second inauguration on Monday in Washington.
“I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to working with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States,” Chew said in a statement, while reiterating the company’s free speech claims.
Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed TikTok in a phone call on Friday.
TikTok may still operate on Sunday if the Biden administration clearly states that it will not enforce the law in deference to the incoming Trump administration. However, it’s unclear whether that would convince Apple (NASDAQ 🙂, Alphabet’s Google (NASDAQ 🙂), Oracle (NYSE 🙂 and others not to stop providing key services to TikTok.
‘CONTROL OF THE FOREIGN ADVERSARY’
Chinese ownership of TikTok has for years raised concerns among U.S. leaders, and the fight over TikTok has unfolded at a time of rising trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Trump is expected to impose high tariffs on Chinese goods because of what he calls unfair trade practices by the world’s largest exporter.
Lawmakers and the Biden administration had emphasized national security concerns regarding TikTok, including the fact that China could use it to amass data on the millions of Americans who use the app for harassment, recruitment and espionage.
“TikTok’s scale and its susceptibility to control by foreign adversaries, coupled with the vast amounts of sensitive data the platform collects, justify differential treatment to address the government’s national security concerns,” the Supreme Court said in opinion no. signed.
TikTok has become one of the most prominent social media platforms in the United States, especially among young people who use it for short videos, including many who use it as a platform for small businesses.
Some users reacted with surprise at the possibility of the ban happening.
“Oh my God, I’m speechless,” said Lourd Asprec, 21, of Houston, who has amassed 16.3 million followers on TikTok and earns about $80,000 a year from the platform. “I don’t even care if China steals my data. They can take away all my data. If anything, I’ll go to China myself and give them my data.”
The company’s powerful algorithm, its main asset, provides individual users with short videos tailored to their tastes. The platform features a vast collection of user-submitted videos, often less than a minute in length, that can be viewed with a smartphone app or on the Internet.
As the January 19 deadline approached, millions of users jumped to other Chinese-owned apps like RedNote and found they had to decipher their Mandarin-only platform to launch their feeds.
“China is adapting in real time to the ruling,” said Craig Singleton, a China expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, which filed a brief in the case against TikTok. “Beijing is not just creating apps; it is building an ecosystem of discursive power to shape global narratives and influence societies.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the ruling affirmed that the law protects the national security of the United States.
“Authoritarian regimes should not have unfettered access to the sensitive data of millions of Americans,” Garland added.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
The Biden administration has emphasized that TikTok could continue operating as is if it is freed from China’s control. The White House indicated Friday that Biden will not take any action to save TikTok.
As Biden is not expected to formally invoke a 90-day delay in the deadline as allowed by law, companies that provide services to TikTok or host the app could face legal liability.
It is not immediately clear whether TikTok’s business partners, including Apple, Google and Oracle, will continue to do business with it ahead of Trump’s inauguration. The law prohibits providing certain services to TikTok and other foreign apps controlled by adversaries, including by offering them through app stores like Apple and Google.
Google declined to comment on Friday. Apple and Oracle did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated in a statement Biden’s position that “TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under U.S. ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law.
Given the timing, Jean-Pierre added, measures to implement the law “must fall to the next administration.”
A viable buyer could still emerge, or Trump could invoke a law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which states that maintaining TikTok is beneficial to national security.
Only one notable bidder has emerged so far: Frank McCourt, former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, who said he believes TikTok is worth about $20 billion without its algorithm.
“Beijing needs TikTok more than Washington,” said Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow and expert on U.S.-China relations at the Hudson (NYSE:) Institute think tank. “With that influence, Trump has a better chance of getting what he wants: the continued operation of TikTok in the United States without any threat to national security.”