Supreme Court upholds law to ban TikTok this Sunday

The US Supreme Court on Friday handed down its decision to uphold a bipartisan law requiring ByteDance, the Chinese-owned parent company of TikTok, to divest from the app or cease operations in the US on Sunday, January 19th.

This leaves President-elect Donald Trump, who will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on Monday morning, the only recourse for the short video app to stay up and running for the 170 million Americans who use it.

The nine justices heard arguments from TikTok and ByteDance lawyers last Friday on why the law forcing the platform's US operations to be “severed from Chinese control” violates the free speech rights of TikTok and the Americans who use it.

The Supreme Court has now ruled that in the interest of national security, Congress has the ultimate power in deciding how to handle those concerns, which include the nefarious collecting of mass amounts of data on the American people.

“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. For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights,” the Supreme Court Justices wrote.

“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. For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights."

- Excerpt from US Supreme Court decision on upholding the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act

The Justices said they applied First Amendment scrutiny to provisions challenged in the law and to similar cases of governmental regulation of conduct.

The 27-page opinion also prefaced its decision by citing the simple fact that “ByteDance Ltd. is subject to Chinese laws that require it to ‘assist or cooperate’ with the Chinese Government’s ‘intelligence work’ and to ensure that the Chinese Government has ‘the power to access and control private data’ the company holds."

The opinion then rattled off a list of past actions taken by US government officials to combat Chinese espionage in general, as well as previous actions that were taken by the Trump administration against TikTok during his first term.

The unanimous opinion further stated that the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act “directly regulates ByteDance Ltd. and TikTok Inc. only through the divestiture requirement,” a point hammered by the US Solicitor General representing the federal government in last week's Supreme Court showdown.

ByteDance and its subsidiary “have not identified any case in which this Court has treated a regulation of corporate control as a direct regulation of expressive activity,” the Justices stated.

“We hesitate to break that new ground in this unique case,” they said.

In support of TikTok

Still waiting on an official response from TikTok at the time of this report, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stepped in to take a turn slamming the Court's decision, calling it "a major blow to freedom of expression."

“The Supreme Court’s ruling is incredibly disappointing, allowing the government to shut down an entire platform and the free speech rights of so many based on fear-mongering and speculation,” said Patrick Toomey, Deputy Director of ACLU’s National Security Project.

“By refusing to block this ban, the Supreme Court is giving the executive branch unprecedented power to silence speech it doesn’t like, increasing the danger that sweeping invocations of ‘national security’ will trump our constitutional rights,” he said.

The Supreme Court’s TikTok ruling is incredibly disappointing—allowing the government to shut down an entire platform and the free speech rights of so many based on fear-mongering and speculation. pic.twitter.com/BMCFsEbEOF

undefined Patrick Toomey (@PatrickCToomey) January 17, 2025

The ACLU, partnering up with First Amendment rights groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Freedom of the Press, filed its own challenge to the law in the Supreme Court on December 27th.

Trump, this week, has already floated signing an Executive Order to extend the divestiture deadline another 90 days once he steps into office, although the law requires that to have the authority to do so, ByteDance must prove significant progress toward procuring a viable buyer and the ability to close the deal within that extended time frame.

In response to the court ruling, Trump took to his own social messaging app, Truth Social, to say that "the Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it."

"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 added.

Meanwhile, business billionaire Frank McCourt said on Thursday that he and a consortium of investors had made an official offer to purchase the Chinese-owned app – without the infamous TikTok algorithm – for a supposed $20 billion price tag.

In another twist of events, it seems that TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will be attending Trump's inaugural ceremony on Monday, January 20th, at 9:00 a.m., proving the US-based CEO may be betting on the incoming President's ability to delay the law from taking effect.