The US Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law that could pave the way for a US ban of TikTok to take effect as soon as Sunday.
The law, signed by President Joe Biden last year, would effectively ban the app in the US if TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, doesn’t sell it to a buyer deemed fit by US officials by Jan. 19. TikTok sued over the law, claiming it violated First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech for the company and TikTok’s 170 million users in the US.
The justices were not persuaded by that argument. In its ruling, the Supreme Court said that while TikTok is “a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” Congress has determined that a sale is needed to “address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”
“For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights,” the court said.
TikTok didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.
Lawyers for TikTok and the US government pleaded their cases in oral arguments before the court late last week, pitting First Amendment perspectives against national security concerns. Based on the questions and comments made by the justices during the more than two-hour-long hearing, it appeared that they were more on board with the government’s argument the case isn’t about free speech and instead has to do with the dangers posed by foreign adversaries, in this case China.
Read more: Downloads, Trump and VPNs: Everything to Know About the Potential TikTok Ban
Lawmakers in both political parties have long voiced concerns that TikTok could be a threat to national security and could be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans or spread disinformation to further China’s agenda.
TikTok continues to deny those accusations. Ahead of votes in Congress last year, TikTok rallied its US users, calling on them to urge their representatives on Capitol Hill to vote down a ban. But the measure ultimately passed by wide margins in both chambers of Congress.
On Thursday, a Biden administration official told ABC News that the White House doesn’t plan to enforce the law during the remaining days before Donald Trump is sworn in as president on Monday, Jan. 20. Â
Trump, who pushed for a ban during his first term, now says he’s no longer in favor of one. In late December, lawyers for Trump filed an amicus brief in the case. They didn’t take a side but instead ask the court to delay the ban to give Trump time to come up with a “political resolution.”