January 17, 2025
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Supreme Court upholds law banning TikTok in the U.S. What’s next?
The end of TikTok in the US appears to be near
“Let’s keep TikTok going” outside the U.S. Supreme Court building on January 10, 2025, during oral arguments on whether to overturn or postpone a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States. A TikTok influencer holds up a placard that says. Washington DC
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
On Friday, the Supreme Court found it legal to force TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the hugely popular app to a company outside China or ban it in the United States. Last week, TikTok’s lawyers argued before the Supreme Court: Bipartisan legislation requiring sales or bans that violate the company’s First Amendment rights. The court disagreed. In an unsigned opinion, the justices wrote that the U.S. government’s national security concerns to “counter China’s data collection and secret content manipulation efforts” are “compelling” and that the law “protects these interests.” “It has been narrowly tailored to further promote this.”
As a result, TikTok, which is used by about 170 million Americans to watch short-form videos and shop, is likely to be shut down in the United States as early as next Sunday. (TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment from.) scientific american.) TikTok’s lawyers told the Supreme Court last week that the app would “go dark” when the law goes into effect on January 19.
What will happen to TikTok?
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Reuters reported this week that TikTok plans to officially shut down in the United States. TikTok will present users with a message about the ban and give them the option to download their data from the app.
If TikTok continues to operate in the country, the law would impose penalties on internet service providers who allow access to the platform on browsers. The law would not make it illegal for people in the United States to have TikTok on their phones, but it would impose fines on app stores like Apple and Google every time people download or update TikTok. App stores are expected to remove TikTok next Sunday, as the fine could be up to $5,000 per user (multiplying by millions, so it adds up quickly). If users are unable to update TikTok, the app will eventually stop working.
What might US TikTokers do?
Hundreds of thousands of U.S. TikTokers have joined other apps. These include a new and popular China-based app named RedNote.
Additionally, the US ban has a potential workaround: virtual private networks (VPNs). In India, which banned TikTok in 2020, users accessed the blocked app through these networks. You can make it look like your traffic is coming from countries where TikTok is allowed. However, this is not always an easy solution. People in the U.S. may need a foreign billing address to access TikTok, one of the popular VPN services, noting that other apps and subscriptions may stop working. has been done.
Will Elon Musk buy TikTok? Will the implementation of the law be delayed? And could President-elect Donald Trump end the ban, as he has asked the Supreme Court to negotiate a deal?
TikTok says the answer to the first question is “pure fiction.” (Meanwhile, YouTuber James Donaldson, also known as Mr. Beast, joked and pondered this week about whether he should buy the app.) TikTok’s consistent public position is that it’s not for sale. It was something. This week, several Democratic senators introduced a bill to extend TikTok’s ban by 270 days, but Republican senators rejected it.
As for the final question, when asked if he would take steps to lift the ban, Trump told CNN: “I will decide.” The newspaper reported that President Trump is considering an executive order that would delay the ban’s implementation for 60 to 90 days. washington post. But it remains to be seen how the president would overturn it, since he does not have the power to overturn the law by executive order. Still, given President Trump’s history, it’s difficult to predict what will happen after he takes office next Monday.
Editor’s note: Since the Supreme Court upheld the US ban on TikTok, many organizations that have been active on the platform scientific americanare adapting to this change. We would like to inform you that our videos can still be found on the following sites: Instagram and YouTube.
