TikTok swept into the social media landscape with an enviable force. It seemed to totally capture the hearts and minds of the youngest generations among us with its addictive platform that offers you short-form video after short-form video. Even millennials are not immune to TikTok’s wiles. For some, influences and artists alike, TikTok has also been a lucrative place to grow a business and make a living. But now, the TikTok ban threatens to outlaw TikTok from the US. If the ban becomes an active law as planned, TikTok will be banned from the United States beginning on January 20. Currently, only the Supreme Court stands between the federal law being enacted and not. But what’s the state of the TikTok ban? Well, the latest and greatest is the Supereme Court has left the ban in place. Yes, the TikTok ban stands and will become law, shutting TikTok down in the US on January 19.
What’s been happening exactly? Here’s the current State of the TikTok ban Union.
Quick Links:
- Latest Updates on the Supreme Court’s TikTok Ban Deliberations: The Supreme Court Upholds TikTok Ban
- What Does It Mean That TikTok Is Banned? Will the App Disappear?
- The Current Overall State of Affairs Regarding a TikTok Shut Down
Latest Updates on the Supreme Court’s TikTok Ban Deliberations: The Supreme Court Upholds TikTok Ban, Putting the Nail in TikTok’s Coffin
It’s final: TikTok is getting banned in the United States. Yes, although it is under a lot of critique and scrutiny, the ban will stand. On January 17, the Supreme Court upheld the TikTok ban after days of deliberations. That means there’s nothing to stop the TikTok ban from becoming law, effectively making the use of TikTok illegal. The Supreme Court unanimously voted to uphold the law, rejecting the idea that banning TikTok infringed on the right to free speech. That means the TikTok ban law will go into effect on January 19. We discuss in more detail below, but in broad strokes, the government signals that it feels the app threatens a risk to national security as long as it is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.
The Chinese embassy has criticized the ban, noting in a statement, “The U.S. has never found evidence that TikTok threatens U.S. national security, but it has used state power and abused national security reasons to unreasonably suppress it, which is not fair or just at all. The U.S. should truly respect the principles of market economy and fair competition, stop unreasonably suppressing companies from other countries, and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for companies from all countries to invest and operate in the U.S.”
What Does It Mean if TikTok Does Get Banned? Will the App Disappear?
But what happens no that TikTok will be banned on January 19? Will the app simply disappear from our phones? It’s not likely to work like that. TikTok’s lawyer Francisco noted “On January 19, as I understand it, we shut down. What the act says is that all of the other types of service providers can’t provide service either. So essentially what they’re going to say is that, I think, ‘we’re not going to be providing the services necessary to have you see it.’ So it’s essentially going to stop operating. I think that’s the consequence of this law.”
While no one is sure what this means in full, essentially, it seems to mean that new users will simply be unable to download TikTok. That will be because app stores, such as the ones that will let you download the app onto an iPhone or Android, will no longer be allowed to support or offer the TikTok app. Additionally, users who have already downloaded TikTok will not be able to download updates and bug fixes for the app or be able to improve the security features of their version of TikTok. This will eventually render the use of their current version of TikTok impossible, degraded, and dangerous, creating vulnerability on users’ devices and a poor user experience.
It’s possible the government could also order American internet service providers to block the TikTok website, but it seems this is a much more complicated tactic to take.
Of course, even after the ban, ByteDance could find a new non-Chinese owner for the TikTok app, which would theoretically lift the ban, returning users access to TikTok. Additionally, the next US president signals that he might try to save the app and undo the ban. A president could offer the company an extension to find a new owner, but as ByteDance does not seem to wish to sell. Additionally, they could seek not to enforce the law, but that would not prevent companies from later being held accountable for infractions.
The Current Overall State of Affairs Regarding a TikTok Shut Down
On January 10th, the Supreme Court heard opening arguments in the case of the TikTok ban, and on January 17, they elected to up uphold the ban law. There’s a lot of legalese involved, but in short, TikTok and ByteDance argued that the TikTok ban/shutdown is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment rights of its 170 million users. While some Supreme Court justices acknowledged the truth of this, the opposition argument is that TikTok does not have to shut down, it simply needs to divest of its owner ByteDance. ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok is a concern to the United States government, which believes the company is using TikTok to spy on Americans for the Chinese government, as well as to spread Chinese-centric propaganda. Ultimately, the Supreme Court upholded the law and will allow the TikTok ban to take effect.
You can listen to the Supreme Court’s discussion about TikTok on YouTube via PBS NewsHour.
On April 24, 2024, President Biden signed the TikTok divest-or-ban bill into law, which also passed in Congress. Since the Supreme Court did not strike down the TikTok ban, the law will go into effect on January 20. That means the use of TikTok will be illegal in the United States, and TikTok will no longer legally be available at the time.
Originally published on January 10, 2025.
