US Supreme Court upholds ban on TikTok as of Sunday

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the law forcing the short video platform TikTok to separate from its parent company, China-based ByteDance. The ruling issued Friday unanimously by the nine justices opens the door to the social network being shut down in the U.S., one of its largest markets, as of this Sunday, the day before Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington.

The U.S. government — which by then will already be in Trump’s hands — can apply an extension of 100 days, as provided by the law itself, passed last May with the support of both parties in Congress. But the condition is that, by then, the social network has begun to take steps to put itself up for sale.

The Justice Department argued that the law is necessary to protect U.S. national security. It claimed that the Chinese-owned platform could disseminate propaganda content in a way that would go unnoticed by users, and that ByteDance could obtain data from its U.S. consumers that could end up in the hands of the Chinese government. TikTok argued, for its part, that the move violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects freedom of speech.

The Supreme Court has upheld the decision issued by an appeals court, which found that the law does not violate the freedom of speech of the platform’s nearly 170 million U.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 ruling states. “For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights,” it adds.

The Supreme Court’s decision comes as president-elect Trump held a conversation Friday with the Chinese President Xi Jinping, in which they discussed the situation of the short video platform, among other issues. Trump himself made the conversation, which he described as positive, known in a post on his social network, Truth. The CEO of TikTok, Singaporean Shou Zi Chew, is one of the guests who will be present at the inauguration ceremony on the steps of the Capitol next Monday.

In a statement, the White House, where President Joe Biden signed the law into effect last May, indicated that the social network should continue to be available to U.S. users, but under U.S. ownership or other owners who do not pose a danger to national security. Those actions will be up to the new administration, which will begin to exercise its functions on January 20.

Biden’s spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, explained that “given the sheer fact of timing, this administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next administration, which takes office on Monday.”

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