Supreme Court upholds law banning TikTok in the US

The Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the federal law which will see TikTok banned in the US on Sunday, unless it’s sold by its China-based parent company.

Experts have said the app will not disappear from existing users’ phones once the law takes effect on January 19, but new users won’t be able to download it and updates won’t be available. The app will eventually become unworkable, as more updates are rolled out.

Without a sale to an approved buyer, the law bars app stores operated by Apple, Google and others from offering TikTok beginning on Sunday and internet hosting services also will be prohibited from hosting TikTok.

The US has said it’s concerned about TikTok collecting vast swaths of user data, including sensitive information on viewing habits, that could fall into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion.

Officials have also warned the algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way that’s difficult to detect.

TikTok, which sued the government last year over the law, has long denied it could be used as a tool of Beijing.

The decision came against the backdrop of President-elect Donald Trump vowing that he could negotiate a solution. President Joe Biden’s administration has signalled it won’t enforce the law beginning from Sunday, his final full day in office.

Trump, mindful of TikTok’s popularity, and his own 14.7 million followers on the app, finds himself on the opposite side of the argument from prominent Senate Republicans who fault TikTok’s Chinese owner for not finding a buyer before now.