January 17, 2025
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The Supreme Court has upheld the law banning TikTok in the US. What’s next?
It looks like the end is near for TikTok in the US
A TikTok activist holds a “Keep TikTok” sign outside the US Supreme Court building as the court hears oral arguments on whether to overturn or delay a law that could ban TikTok in the US, on January 10, 2025. Washington, DC
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
The Supreme Court on Friday confirmed that it would be legal to force TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the wildly popular app to a company outside of China or ban it in the U.S. Last week, a TikTok lawyer argued before the Supreme Court. bipartisan legislation mandating a sale or ban violated the company’s First Amendment rights. The court disagreed. In an unsigned opinion, the justices wrote that the U.S. government’s security concerns — “countering China’s data collection and covert content manipulation efforts” — were “compelling” and that the law was a “narrow measure to further those interests.”
As a result, TikTok — which 170 million Americans use to watch and shop for short-form videos — is likely to shut down in the US as soon as next Sunday. (TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment American scientific.) TikTok’s lawyer told the Supreme Court last week that when the law takes effect on January 19, the app will “go dark”.
What will happen to TikTok?
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Reuters reported this week that TikTok intention to formally close In the US: It will greet users with a message about the ban and allow them to download their data from the app.
If TikTok remains active in the country, the law would punish internet service providers for allowing access to the platform in a browser. Although the law does not make it illegal for people in the US to have TikTok on their phones, it does fine app stores, such as Apple or Google, whenever people download or update TikTok. With fines of up to $5,000 per user (which, multiplied by millions, would add up very quickly), app stores are expected to remove TikTok next Sunday. If users can’t update TikTok, eventually the app will stop working anyway.
What can US TikTokers do?
Hundreds of thousands of TikTokers in the US have moved on to other apps. Among these a A new popular app based in China called RedNote.
Additionally, there are potential solutions to the US ban, namely virtual private networksor VPNs. In India, which banned TikTok in 2020, users have accessed the blocked app through these networks; traffic may appear as if it came from a country where TikTok is allowed. This is not necessarily an easy solution, however. People in the US may need a foreign billing address to access TikTok, It has been highlighted by a popular VPN serviceand their other applications or subscriptions may stop working.
Will Elon Musk buy TikTok? Will law enforcement be delayed? And can incoming president Donald Trump suspend the ban on negotiating the deal—as requested by the Supreme Court—?
TikTok says the answer to the first question is “pure fiction“. (Meanwhile, YouTuber James Donaldson, aka MrBeast, joke/reflect (whether to buy the app this week.) TikTok’s consistent public stance has been that it’s not for sale. Some Democratic members of Congress presented the bill this week Extending the TikTok ban by 270 days, but Republican senators vetoed it.
As for that last question, when asked if he would take steps to roll back the ban, Trump told CNN “make a decision“. Trump is considering an executive order that would do just that delaying the enforcement of the ban 60 to 90 days, depending Washington Post. But since presidents do not have the power to repeal a law by executive order, it remains to be seen how he can do so. That said, given Trump’s history, it’s hard to predict what will happen after he takes office next Monday.
Editor’s note: As the US Supreme Court upheld the TikTok ban, several organizations that have been active on the platform, including American scientificthey are adapting to this change. We want to let you know that you can still find our videos Instagram and YouTube.
