Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban: Read the full SCOTUS decision
The U.S. Supreme Court officially upheld the law to ban the TikTok social media app on Friday, closing the door on the app's bid to continue functioning in the U.S. but leaving plenty of questions still unanswered.
Outgoing President Joe Biden signed a law last spring demanding the app's China-based parent company, ByteDance, sell its U.S. assets by Jan. 19 or face a nationwide ban on the grounds of national security.
The decision comes a week after the court heard more than two hours of debate on whether the government can require the app to divest from ByteDance, with TikTok's lawyers calling the ban a “massive, unprecedented restriction” on free speech. The Biden administration and Justice Department, however, said the restriction is not on speech but on a foreign adversary’s ability to control a widely used means of communication.
SCOTUS has come down on the side of the DOJ, issuing a 27-page decision that begins, "As of January 19, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act will make it unlawful for companies in the United States to provide services to distribute, maintain, or update the social media platform TikTok, unless U. S. operation of the platform is severed from Chinese control."
Read the full SCOTUS decision below.
Read the full SCOTUS decision on TikTok
Read TikTok CEO's full response to SCOTUS decision
In a post to the official TikTok and X accounts made around 12:30 p.m. ET, roughly two and a half hours after the SCOTUS decision was announced, TikTok's CEO Shou Zi Chew shared a hopeful message to American users, saying he will be working with President Trump to keep the platform available in the U.S.
Read the full statement here:
"Hi everyone, it's Shou here. As you know, we have been fighting to protect the constitutional right to free speech for the more than 170 million Americans who use our platform every day to connect, create, discover and achieve their dreams.
On behalf of everyone at TikTok and all our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States. This is a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. As we've said, TikTok is a place where people can create communities, discover new interests, and express themselves, including over 7 million American businesses who earn a living and gain new customers using our platform.
We are grateful and pleased to have the support of a president who truly understands our platform - one who has used TikTok to express his own thoughts and perspectives, connecting with the world and generating more than 60 billion views of his content in the process.
To our American users, thank you for making our TikTok community such a rich and vibrant space for surprising and delighting us every day. Rest assured will we do everything in our power to ensure our platform thrives as your online home for limitless creativity and discovery as well as a source of inspiration and joy for years to come. Thank you, more to come."
What happens now?
Despite the decision, the future of TikTok in the U.S. remains unclear. Earlier this week, Biden said he would not enforce the ban, while incoming president Donald Trump has said "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!"
TikTok also announced this week that it plans to shut down in the U.S. of its own volition on Sunday if the ban is upheld. The company has yet to provide comment since the decision was announced. It is still unclear what this will mean for the millions of American users of the app come Sunday.
On Friday, Paste BN reached out to TikTok for comments regarding the Supreme Court's decision and about its reported plan to shut down.
Experts have said TikTokers should expect the app to go dark on Sunday.
Contributing: Eric Lagatta, Greta Cross, Maureen Groppe, Paste BN