U.S. Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban, sale deadline looms
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld on Friday a law that effectively means TikTok will be banned in the United States if the platform doesn't change ownership by January 19. The Chinese firm ByteDance Ltd. has refused to comply with American regulations.
The Supreme Court upheld the law that threatens the ban of the popular TikTok platform in the U.S. as early as Sunday, January 19, reports Bloomberg. The judges ruled that concerns over Chinese control of the app and the risk it poses to U.S. national security are more important than the right to freedom of speech online.
Will TikTok be blocked in the U.S.?
The law is a sort of ultimatum for TikTok's owner, ByteDance Ltd. Either the Chinese company sells the app by January 19, or TikTok will be banned in the U.S. About 170 million users in the U.S. use the platform.
"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 stated on January 17.
The decision also has serious consequences for American giants Google and Apple. They face the prospect of huge fines if they continue to cooperate with TikTok. Bloomberg reminds us that President-elect Donald Trump promised to save TikTok and may suspend the enforcement of the new law as soon as he takes office on Monday, January 20.
ByteDance has been insisting for weeks that it will not sell the platform. Meanwhile, news has spread worldwide that the Chinese, facing a ban in the U.S., are considering the option of TikTok being acquired by billionaire Elon Musk.
The outgoing administration of President Joe Biden argued before the court about the validity of the law in this matter. They claimed that continued Chinese control over TikTok would allow for the spread of propaganda and the collection of American data for espionage purposes.
