Supreme Court Upholds TikTok Ban

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the TikTok ban passed by Congress could go into effect this weekend, saying it did not violate the First Amendment. 

In an unassigned opinion, the court ruled that Congress was justified in passing the ban because of concerns about the Chinese government using TikTok to harvest the private data of millions of Americans. If China-based ByteDance does not sell the social media platform, the ban will go into effect on Sunday, January 19. 

“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the court wrote. “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.”

While the main opinion was not signed, two concurring opinions were attached from Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

The court said that those challenging the ban, including a group of TikTok users, did not provide any examples of the law actually curtailing their speech.

“It is not clear that the Act itself directly regulates protected expressive activity, or conduct with an expressive component. Indeed, the Act does not regulate the creator petitioners at all. And it directly regulates ByteDance Ltd. and TikTok Inc. only through the divestiture requirement,” the court wrote. 

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The court added that the regulations imposed by the law, which was signed by President Joe Biden in April, were content neutral.

“They impose TikTok-specific prohibitions due to a foreign adversary’s control over the platform and make divestiture a prerequisite for the platform’s continued operation in the United States,” the court wrote. “The Government also supports the challenged provisions with a content-neutral justification: preventing China from collecting vast amounts of sensitive data from 170 million U. S. TikTok users.”

The law from Congress says that TikTok will be banned as long as it is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. If it is sold to an American company, it will no longer be banned. There have been various proposals floated to save TikTok, including from “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary, who has partnered with a group called “The People’s Bid for TikTok.” 

This is a breaking story. Refresh for updates.