THE US SUPREME Court has backed a law going into effect that would ban the social media app TikTok in the United States. 

Congress last year, in a law signed by President Joe Biden, required that TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance divest the company by 19 January, a day before the presidential inauguration.

Last week, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a legal challenge to the statute brought by TikTok, its China-based parent company ByteDance, and users of the app.

The Supreme Court has now upheld the law banning TikTok beginning Sunday if it’s not sold by its Chinese parent company.

In a major defeat for TikTok, the court ruled that the law does not violate free speech rights and that the US government had demonstrated legitimate national security concerns about a Chinese company owning the app.

The US Justice Department has outlined concerns that TikTok and ByteDance collect large amounts of data and this could all into the hands of the Chinese government and that the algorithm that powers TikTok recommendations could be manipulated by Beijing.

To combat this, the US has therefore ruled that TikTok must split from ByteDance in order to stay online in the United States.

Unclear

However, despite the law and today’s ruling, President Joe Biden will not enforce a ban on the app before he leaves office, a US official said.

Incoming President Donald Trump, who once called to ban the app, has since pledged to keep it available in the US though his transition team has not said how they intend to accomplish that.

Following the court’s ruling today, Trump posted on his social media app saying: “The Supreme Court decision 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!”

The US Justice Department said that implementing the law banning TikTok in the United States unless its Chinese owner sells the platform will take time.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco welcomed the Supreme Court ruling upholding a law that will ban TikTok and said “the next phase of this effort — implementing and ensuring compliance with the law after it goes into effect on 19 January — will be a process that plays out over time.”

The outgoing Biden administration said Friday it will be up to President-elect Donald Trump to decide on whether to enforce a law banning China’s popular TikTok app in the United States.

The outgoing Biden administration has said it will be up to Trump to decide to enforce a ban.

“Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

The most likely scenario at the moment is TikTok stays online for the time being while work on some sort of deal continues in the background, but its fate in the United States remains up in the air.

Should a ban go ahead, it would prevent people the US from downloading TikTok from app stores but this would not impact users elsewhere. 

However, the disappearance of TikTok from one of its biggest markets would undoubtedly hit the platform in some way as it would fundamentally change how it looks.

Some users have already begun looking for alternatives and RedNote has quickly become the most downloaded app on Irish and US app stores in recent days.

More to follow