Time's up for TikTok: US Supreme Court upholds sale law, app may go dark on January 19

The US Supreme Court on January 17 upheld the law that required TikTok, a popular short-video app, to be sold by its Chinese parent company ByteDance or be banned from January 19 in the United States on national security grounds. 

The justices unanimously ruled that the law, passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress last year and signed by Democratic President Joe Biden, did not violate the US Constitution's First Amendment protection against government abridgement of free speech, Reuters reported. 

The justices affirmed a lower court’s decision that had upheld the measure after it was challenged by TikTok, ByteDance and some of the app’s users. 

The court stated that it was giving “significant regard” to the US government's national security concerns regarding China. The justices pointed out that the evidence in the case indicated China has been involved in extensive, long-term efforts to collect structured datasets, particularly on US individuals, to aid its intelligence and counterintelligence operations. 

The parent company, ByteDance, has so far refused to sell TikTok, which may result in many US users losing access to the app this weekend. The app may still work for those, who already have TikTok on their phones, although ByteDance has also threatened to shut the app down.

TikTok plans to shut its US operations of the app on January 19 barring a last-minute reprieve, as per the Reuters report. 

The app is one of the most prominent social media platforms in the United States and is used by about 270 million Americans. TikTok’s algorithm feeds individual users short videos tailored to their liking. The platform presents a vast collection of user-submitted videos, often under a minute in duration, that can be viewed with a smartphone app or on the internet. 

President-elect Donald Trump had asked the Supreme Court in December to pause the implementation of the law and allow his administration “the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case.” 

Trump will take oath of office on January 20, a day after the deadline for a sale for TikTok ends. TikTok CEO Shou Chew is one of several tech leaders expected to be in attendance during his swearing-in.