The U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous judgment, ruled against TikTok on Friday. The court upheld a law that would ban TikTok in the United States on national security grounds if its Chinese parent company ByteDance does not sell the short-video app by Sunday.
The court decided that the law, which was signed by Democratic President Joe Biden and enacted by Congress last year with a resounding bipartisan majority, did not violate the First Amendment’s rights of free speech.
In April 2024, the law to ban TikTok was passed. It was defended in court by Biden’s administration. After losing on December 6 at the U.S. Court of Appeals, TikTok, ByteDance, and certain users who post content on the app contested the ban and appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court judges upheld the lower court’s ruling that had imposed the ban.
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TikTok’s argument – free speech concerns
According to TikTok, the bill jeopardises the First Amendment rights of all Americans, not just the company and its users.
According to TikTok, the restriction would affect its user base, marketers, content producers, and staff members.
TikTok employs 7,000 people in the US. The app is “one of America’s most popular speech platforms,” according to Noel Francisco, the attorney for TikTok and ByteDance, who told the Supreme Court that the rule would force it to “go dark” unless ByteDance carried out a qualified divestiture.
According to Francisco, the true goal of this law is speech, notably the concern that Americans would be “persuaded by Chinese misinformation.” But according to Francisco, the First Amendment gives the American people, not the government, that authority.
The law effectively prevents TikTok’s ongoing use in the United States absent divestiture by prohibiting the provision of specific services to TikTok and other foreign adversary-controlled apps, including through app stores like Apple’s (AAPL.O), opens new tab, and Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google.
U.S. government argument – national security concerns
Elizabeth Prelogar, a Justice Department attorney, stated during the case’s arguments that the Chinese government’s ownership over TikTok presents a “grave threat” to American national security because China wants to gather a lot of private information about Americans and use it for secret influence operations.
According to Prelogar, China forces businesses like ByteDance to comply with Chinese government orders and discreetly transfer user data on social media.
According to Prelogar, the Chinese government may utilise TikTok’s massive data set for espionage, recruitment, and harassment. China “could weaponise TikTok at any time to harm the United States.”
Read also: TikTok denies sale to Elon Musk amid looming U.S. ban deadline
U.S. Supreme Court ruling
“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 opinion.
The judge stated that “we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights.”
In the era of social media, the case put national security concerns against the right to free speech.
The U.S. government’s national security concerns over China were given “substantial respect” by the court. The case’s evidence, according to the justices, showed that China “has engaged in extensive and years-long efforts to accumulate structured datasets, in particular on U.S. persons, to support its intelligence and counterintelligence operations.”
White House stance
According to a White House statement, Biden would not intervene to save TikTok before the law’s divestiture deadline on Sunday.
In the statement, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reaffirmed Biden’s stance 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.”
Jean-Pierre noted that because of the time, the law’s implementation “must fall to the next administration.”
If Biden doesn’t decide to formally request a 90-day extension of the deadline, companies that host the app or provide services to TikTok may be held legally responsible.
It’s unclear right now if TikTok’s corporate partners—which include Google, Apple, and Oracle—will stay in business with the app until after Trump takes office. A TikTok closure on Sunday is still a possibility due to the uncertainty.
TikTok’s US popularity among young people
Approximately 270 million Americans, many of whom are young, use TikTok, one of the most popular social media platforms in the country.
Its main asset, a powerful algorithm, allows users to create short videos that are tailored to their preferences. The platform displays a vast collection of user-submitted videos, many of which are under a minute long and can be viewed online or through a smartphone app.
China and the United States are geopolitical and economic rivals, and American leaders have long expressed concern over the company’s Chinese ownership.
The dispute has taken place during the last days of Biden’s presidency and at a time of escalating trade tensions between the two largest economies in the world.
The rule, according to the Biden administration, addresses foreign opponent control of the app rather than protected expression, and TikTok may carry on as it is if it is released from Chinese control.
Trump’s shocking turnaround
Trump has vowed to “save” TikTok, but many of his Republican allies backed the ban. In December, Trump asked the Supreme Court to put the law on hold to give his incoming administration “the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case.”
Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Mike Waltz, stated on Thursday that the new administration will keep TikTok alive in the United States if there is a viable deal, adding that the incoming administration would “put measures in place to keep TikTok from going dark,” citing a clause in the law that allows for a 90-day extension if there is “significant progress” towards a divestiture.
Trump’s resistance to the ban is a change from his first time in office when he sought to outlaw TikTok. According to Trump, he has “a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” believing that the platform aided him in attracting younger people during the 2024 election.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader of the Senate, stated on Thursday that TikTok should be given more time to find an American buyer and that he would collaborate with the Trump administration “to keep TikTok alive while protecting our national security.”
Trump would succeed Biden on Monday. Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, will be seated alongside other prominent invitees at Trump’s inauguration.