The Supreme Court of United States upheld a law that will effectively ban TikTok on Sunday, January 19. This decision marks the conclusion of TikTok’s months-long legal battle against the law, which mandates the ByteDance-owned app to shut down unless it divests its U.S. operations.
The justices 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 U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech. The justices overturned a lower court’s decision that had upheld the measure after it was challenged by TikTok, ByteDance and some of the app’s users.
“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. 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 said in the unsigned opinion.
The court added that “we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights.”
The Supreme Court acted speedily in the case, having held arguments on Jan. 10, just nine days before the deadline set under the law. The case pitted free speech rights against national security concerns in the age of social media.
