Supreme Court unanimously upholds impending TikTok ban

CV NEWS FEED // In a unanimous Friday ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a bipartisan law signed by outgoing President Joe Biden last year that would ban the short-form video-sharing app TikTok if its owner, Chinese company ByteDance, does not divest of it by Sunday.

The legislation, passed and signed in April 2024, was mainly intended to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – which ByteDance is known to have ties to – from using TikTok to exert influence over the app’s mostly young userbase.

The Court concluded that the law does not violate TikTok’s or its content creators’ First Amendment rights.

“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 wrote in its ruling. 

The Washington Post noted that the “unanimous decision was a major blow for TikTok, injecting deep uncertainty into the app’s future.”

It is “unlikely” that a “last-minute” divesture of TikTok will occur by the rapidly-approaching deadline, according to the Post, meaning the impending ban on the app, known for its immense popularity among Generation Z, will almost certainly go into effect Sunday.

Notably, Biden is set to leave office and be replaced by President-elect Donald Trump on Monday, the day after the deadline for ByteDance’s sale. Trump has recently expressed opposition to the idea of banning TikTok.

The Hill reported that “Trump had urged the justices to delay the deadline so he could negotiate a deal, but the court instead acted with breakneck speed.”

Trump wrote on TRUTH Social late Friday morning that the Court’s “decision was expected, and everyone must respect it.”

The incoming president indicated his “decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!”

Earlier in the morning, Trump wrote in another post that he had spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping over the phone discussing a variety of topics, including TikTok.

“The call was a very good one for both China and the U.S.A.,” Trump wrote in the Friday morning post. “It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately.”

The New York Times reported: “It is unclear if an executive order by Mr. Trump could effectively halt” TikTok’s likely ban.

“Legal experts said he could direct the Justice Department not to enforce the law, or delay enforcement for a set period, but how such an executive order would fare if challenged in court was uncertain,” the Times added.

Former Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-WI, who sponsored the “divest-or-ban” bill, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) just after the Court’s decision was handed down: “Congress’s goal was never to ban TikTok. It was to allow Americans to use the app safe from Chinese Communist Party control.” 

“Today,” Gallagher continued, “the Supreme Court unanimously upheld that effort while soundly rejecting TikTok’s Orwellian position that protecting the First Amendment somehow violates the First Amendment.”

“Had ByteDance spent as much time pursuing a divestment as it had trying to manipulate our political system, the threat of TikTok vanishing on Sunday would not exist,” the former lawmaker added. “If the app goes dark, ByteDance will have no one to blame but itself.”

“Now, the only obstacles preventing Americans from using TikTok are Xi Jinping and the CCP,” Gallagher’s post went on. “The incoming Trump administration has the opportunity to negotiate the deal of a century, force a sale to a non-foreign adversary buyer, and save TikTok for Americans.”