US Supreme Court upholds law banning TikTok

The US Supreme Court upheld on Friday a law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds if its Chinese parent company ByteDance does not sell the short-video app by Sunday, as the justices in a 9-0 decision declined to rescue a platform used by about half of all Americans.

The justices ruled that the law, passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress last year and signed by Democratic President Joe Biden, did not violate the US Constitution’s First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech. The justices affirmed a lower court’s decision that had upheld the measure after it was challenged by TikTok, ByteDance and some of the app’s users.

“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. 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,” the court said in the unsigned opinion.

The court added that “we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights.”

A statement issued by the White House statement suggested that Biden would not take any action to save TikTok before the law’s Sunday deadline for divestiture. Republican Donald Trump, who opposed a TikTik ban, succeeds Biden on Monday.

The case pitted free speech rights against national security concerns in the age of social media.

The court said it was giving “substantial respect” to the US government’s national security concerns about China. The justices noted that evidence in the case reflected that China “has engaged in extensive and years-long efforts to accumulate structured datasets, in particular on US persons, to support its intelligence and counterintelligence operations.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement reiterated Biden’s position that “TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law.”

Given the timing, Jean-Pierre added, action to implement the law “must fall to the next administration.”

Trump’s team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

TikTok also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. TikTok plans to shut US operations of the app on Sunday barring a last-minute reprieve, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

Without a decision by Biden to formally invoke a 90-day delay in the deadline, companies providing services to TikTok or hosting the app could face legal liability. It is not immediately clear if TikTok’s business partners including Google, Apple and Oracle will continue doing business with it before Trump is inaugurated. The uncertainty leaves open the possibility of a shutdown by TikTok on Sunday.

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The Supreme Court acted speedily in the case, having held arguments on Jan 10, just nine days before the deadline set under the law.

TikTok is one of the most prominent social media platforms in the United States, used by about 270 million Americans, including many young people. TikTok’s powerful algorithm, its main asset, feeds individual users short videos tailored to their liking. The platform presents a vast collection of user-submitted videos, often under a minute in duration, that can be viewed with a smart phone app or on the internet.

China and the United States are economic and geopolitical rivals, and TikTok’s Chinese ownership for years has raised concerns among American leaders. The TikTok fight has unfolded during the waning days of Biden’s presidency and at a time of rising trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.

The Biden administration has said the law targets control of the app by a foreign adversary, not protected speech, and that TikTok could continue operating as-is if it is freed from China’s control.

During arguments in the case, Justice Department lawyer Elizabeth Prelogar said Chinese government control of TikTok poses a “grave threat” to US national security, with China seeking to amass vast quantities of sensitive data on Americans and to engage in covert influence operations. Prelogar said China compels companies like ByteDance to secretly turn over data on social media users and carry out Chinese government directives.

TikTok’s immense data set, Prelogar added, represents a powerful tool that could be used by the Chinese government for harassment, recruitment and espionage, and that China “could weaponize TikTok at any time to harm the United States.”

The law was passed last April. Biden’s administration defended it in court. TikTok and ByteDance, as well as some users who post content on the app, challenged the measure and appealed to the Supreme Court after losing on Dec 6 at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Trump’s opposition to the ban represents a reversal in stance from his first term in office when he aimed to prohibit TikTok. Trump has said he has “a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” opining that the app helped him with young voters in the 2024 election.