Joe Hindy / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the TikTok ban.
- The law is set to go into effect on Sunday, which would lead to the app going dark unless ByteDance divests itself from the company beforehand.
- There are signs that lawmakers want to delay the ban.
TikTok is nearing what could be its final days here in the US, impacting the millions of Americans who use the platform. In what could be the final nail in the coffin, the Supreme Court has now ruled against TikTok’s latest effort to prevent the ban from going into effect.
As reported by NBC News, the US Supreme Court rejected ByteDance’s free speech challenge on Friday. With this ruling, there’s now nothing in the way to stop the TikTok law from going into effect on Sunday. That law requires parent company ByteDance to divest itself from TikTok and sell it to a US company or be banned.
Anti-TikTok sentiment began after Donald Trump attempted to ban the social media platform during his first term as president. However, it wasn’t until last spring that the movement really began to pick up steam after the House of Representatives passed a bill for a ban. That bill was later passed in the Senate after two attempts and signed into law by President Joe Biden. The argument is that the law is protecting national security as China’s government could exert control over ByteDance to control what users see and influence opinion.
Despite the ruling, it appears the Biden administration has showed no intent on enforcing the law on Sunday. There are also signs that President-elect Trump has changed his opinion on TikTok and is willing to keep it around. In fact, Trump has filed amicus brief urging the court to put the ban on hold to allow time to “pursue a political resolution.”
In this case, Trump could grant a 90-day extension to give TikTok more time to find an American buyer. However, ByteDance has long declared that it won’t sell the company. Another avenue he could take is to simply not enforce the law, but that comes with its own problems. For example, Apple or Google likely wouldn’t want to host the app as they could face civil penalties since the law prevents companies from distributing, maintaining, or updating the app.
Although the law goes into effect in only a couple of days, it’s still unclear what could happen. There are signs that lawmakers are looking for ways to delay the ban.