Incoming President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to delay a legislative deadline that would force a sale or ban of TikTok by January 19, 2025. Under an existing bill signed by current President Joe Biden, Chinese parent ByteDance must sell or divest itself of TikTok or face a complete ban in the United States.
The legislation signed by President Biden in April 2024 justifies the ban by citing the ongoing privacy, security, and national security risks that TikTok poses to United States persons.
In a statement filed on Friday, December 27, Trump asked for a delay “to give his incoming administration the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case.”
A court will hear the appeal on January 10, 2025.
How much of a threat is TikTok to the United States?
Under Chinese law, ByteDance can share sensitive, personally identifiable information about its TikTok users with Beijing. Over 170 million people in the United States have a TikTok account, despite any perceived threat to their digital footprint or privacy.
TikTok is very popular with young children, with Sprout Social citing 80% of children between the ages of 12 and 17 using it daily. Generation Z, between the ages of 18 and 24, accounts for over 36% of its users. On average, Generation Z spends 53 minutes daily using TikTok, far exceeding any other social media platform.
The danger of TikTok against other social media platforms is, with intent, viral content that can seek to influence a population originating from Beijing. Combine heavy adoption with an ability to deliver specific, manipulative video content to highly targeted user groups, and there is an overwhelming privacy and security concern.
It can also be leveraged for surveillance, underground black markets, and aiding Chinese interests not only within the United States but globally.
Trump flips on TikTok ban stance
On the campaign trail ahead of Trump’s re-election, Trump promised to “save the app” by opposing a ban. This marks a reversal in not only United States policy, but Trump’s own former stance on the issue.
In 2020, during President Trump’s first term, he signed an executive order to block the app in the U.S. This would have forced ByteDance to divest itself from American assets and any data TikTok had collected in the U.S. to that point within 90 days.
However, the executive order was ultimately blocked by many courts and revoked by President Biden once he assumed office. Biden later signed the request into law in April 2024.
Will TikTok be banned on January 19, 2025?
The Supreme Court will hear the appeal on January 10, 2025. The court may decide not to force divestiture or agree to the terms proposed. In this scenario, TikTok would effectively be banned in the United States on January 19, requiring some future action or decision under President Trump starting January 20, 2025.
The Supreme Court met with TikTok and ByteDance earlier this month to hear an appeal against a lower-court ruling from a federal appeals court. The federal appeals court unanimously agreed to uphold the ban, citing national security interests to regulate the platform within the U.S.
TikTok and its legal defense argue that any ban within the U.S. is unconstitutional, violating citizens’ First Amendment to freedom of speech. Previous attempts by CEO Shou Zi Chew failed to convince Congress members that it was not a security or privacy risk to Americans.
The platform has already been officially banned on government devices in the United Kingdom. In the U.S., a No TikTok on Government Devices Act passed the Senate in 2022 and was signed into law by President Biden the same year. It effectively bans TikTok on any U.S. government device–over 4 million.
A full briefing provided to the Supreme Court of TikTok Inc. vs. Merrick Garland, Attorney General, filed December 27, is available in PDF format. The filing discusses “Whether the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (“the Act”), as applied to petitioners, violates the First Amendment.”
