Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban, clears way for app to shut down in U.S. as soon as Sunday

Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a new law that would lead to a ban of the social media platform TikTok, clearing the way for the widely popular app to shutter in the U.S. as soon as Sunday.

“We conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate the petitioners’ First Amendment rights,” the court said in a unanimous unsigned opinion, which upholds the lower court decision against TikTok. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch wrote separately, with Gorsuch agreeing with the outcome of the case but splitting with the court’s reasoning.

The court’s opinion comes days before the law, which was passed with bipartisan majorities of Congress last April, is set to take effect. TikTok and a group of content creators who use the app argued the law infringes on their free speech rights, and the Supreme Court heard arguments in their bid to block it one week ago.

“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’s opinion said. 

“The challenged provisions further an important government interest unrelated to the suppression of free expression and do not burden substantially more speech than necessary to further that interest,” the court said, adding that the law’s requirements that TikTok either divest or face a ban are designed to prevent China from gaining access to the personal data from the app’s U.S. users.

Called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, the law requires TikTok to either divest from ByteDance, its parent company, or be cut off from U.S. app stores and hosting services beginning Jan. 19. President-elect Donald Trump, who will be sworn in for a second term on Jan. 20, had urged the court to pause implementation of the law to allow him to pursue a “political resolution” once he takes office.

In response to the ruling, Trump wrote on Truth Social that it 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!”

With the Supreme Court declining to throw TikTok a lifeline, the immediate effects on access to the app as of Sunday’s deadline aren’t clear. Reuters reported Wednesday that the company planned to shut down for U.S. users once the ban takes effect. Those trying to open the app would be greeted with a pop-up message directing them to a website with information about the new law, according to the report.

Many users have begun downloading their videos and data from TikTok in anticipation of a ban and migrating to other platforms, including the Chinese-owned RedNote.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration will not begin enforcing the law beginning on Sunday, leaving it to the incoming Trump administration.

“President Biden’s position on TikTok has been clear for months, including since Congress sent a bill in overwhelming, bipartisan fashion to the president’s desk: 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,” she said. “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.”

Trump could decline to enforce the ban, but companies like Apple and Google could still potentially face steep fines if they host the app in violation of the law. During arguments last week, the government noted there is a five-year statute of limitations for violations of the law, meaning a future administration could punish offenders.

TikTok and the Supreme Court

Congress and the Biden administration have raised national security concerns about TikTok for years. Federal employees cannot have the app on their government-issued phones, and a majority of states have barred the platform on state government devices. 

The law aims to prevent China from collecting substantial amounts of data from the platform’s 170 million U.S. users and covertly manipulate the content on TikTok to harm the U.S. by sowing discord and division, federal officials have said.

But TikTok, which curates short videos for users through a powerful recommendation algorithm, said it is a U.S. company that is protected by the First Amendment from Congress’ attempt to ban the platform. 

During arguments, the justices appeared poised to uphold the law, though several expressed concerns that it could conflict with the First Amendment. Still, many of the court’s members seemed to agree that the law targeted TikTok’s ownership by a foreign company, ByteDance, instead of the speech shared on the platform. 

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who argued for the U.S. government, said the “unprecedented amounts” of personal data collected by TikTok would give the Chinese government “a powerful tool for harassment, recruitment and espionage.” She cited several data breaches that the U.S. has attributed to China over the last decade, including the hack of the Office of Personnel Management that compromised the personal information of millions of federal employees.

“For years, the Chinese government has sought to build detailed profiles about Americans, where we live and work, who our friends and coworkers are, what our interests are and what our vices are,” Pregolar said. 

Noel Francisco, who argued on behalf of TikTok and ByteDance, said the Supreme Court’s decision would be “enormously consequential.” If the companies are forced to cut ties, he said, TikTok “would be a fundamentally different platform” because the new owner would have to rebuild the algorithm, which would take years. Other social media platforms have tried to replicate the algorithm, but have been unable to match TikTok’s, according to Jeffrey Fisher, who represented the creators. China has said it is opposed to the sale of TikTok’s algorithm.

If the law is not paused or overturned by Jan. 19, “we go dark,” Francisco said. “The platform shuts down,” he said, later clarifying that TikTok would no longer be available in U.S. app stores. If TikTok doesn’t shut down voluntarily, experts told CBS News that the experience for users who already have it on their phones would likely suffer with time because they would no longer receive software updates.

Several of the justices on the liberal and conservative wings of the bench repeatedly raised concerns about TikTok’s collection of data from its American users and the Chinese government’s access to that personal information.

“Are we supposed to ignore the fact that the ultimate parent is, in fact, subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?” Chief Justice John Roberts asked Francisco, referring to ByteDance.

Congress found that ByteDance is subject to Chinese laws that require it to cooperate with the Chinese government’s intelligence work and ensure it has the power to access private data the company holds, Roberts said.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, too, warned of the future implications of the Chinese government having access to data from the tens of millions of Americans who use TikTok every month.

Congress and the president, he said, were worried that China “would use that information over time to develop spies, to turn people, to blackmail people, people who a generation from now will be working in the FBI or the CIA or the State Department. Is that not a realistic assessment by Congress and the president of the risks here?”

Francisco claimed that TikTok would “have to go mute” unless it severs ties from ByteDance, but Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pushed back on that characterization of the law.

“If TikTok were to, post-divestiture or whatever, pre-divestiture, come up with its own algorithm, then when the divestiture happened, it could still operate. It doesn’t say, ‘TikTok, you can’t speak,'” she said, adding that TikTok can remain in the U.S. as long as it’s not associated with ByteDance.

In its opinion, the high court focused primarily on the data collection concerns raised by Congress and the Justice Department, finding that the law is sufficiently tailored to address the U.S. government’s interest in preventing a foreign adversary, China, from collecting “vast swaths” of sensitive information from TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users.

Congress, it said, “had good reason to single out TikTok for special treatment.”

The court refrained from backing the government’s interest in stopping China’s purported covert manipulation of content, which the Biden administration had cited as a national security justification for the law.

“One man’s ‘covert content manipulation’ is another’s ‘editorial discretion,'” Gorsuch wrote in an opinion concurring in judgment. “Journalists, publishers, and speakers of all kinds routinely make less-than-transparent judgments about what stories to tell and how to tell them. Without question, the First Amendment has much to say about the right to make those choices.”

For Americans who rely on TikTok to exchange ideas about all manner of topics, from politics to entertainment to the news, the stakes of the case are high. Creators who challenged the law said they use it to sell products, reach thousands of people and create a nationwide community.

“That’s our editor and publisher of choice that we think best disseminates our speech,” Fisher said.

Trump attempted to effectively ban TikTok during his first term in office because of national security concerns, though his executive order targeting the app was blocked by a federal court and then rescinded by Mr. Biden. But the president-elect has reversed course on his view of the platform.

Trump told Newsmax in an interview this week that he’s “not opposed” to TikTok and said his campaign’s use of the app helped him win over young voters in the November presidential election.

“I had a very good experience with TikTok,” he said.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his South Florida resort, in December, and is expected to attend the president-elect’s inauguration Monday.

Trump also spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping by phone Friday, Trump wrote on Truth Social. TikTok was one of the issues they discussed, he said.

The president-elect’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, declined to say during her confirmation hearing Wednesday whether she would enforce the law if confirmed to lead the Justice Department, citing the pending litigation.

Sara Cook

contributed to this report.