Welp, the United States Supreme Court has spoken. After months of uncertainty regarding the future of TikTok in the U.S., SCOTUS has decided that the U.S. TikTok ban is, in fact, constitutional.
This decision has been a long time in the making. The app, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has been under scrutiny for quite a while now, with U.S. lawmakers and lobbyists citing national security concerns — namely, fears about U.S. user data possibly being accessed by the Chinese government — as the reason for the ban. TikTok consistently denied sharing U.S. user data with China, and took steps to protect American TikTok users’ information, but those opposing the app continued to speak up about their concerns in a series of legal battles.
In April 2024, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that would ban TikTok unless ByteDance sold its U.S. stakes of the app by Jan. 19, 2025. That led TikTok and ByteDance to sue the U.S. government, saying the ban violates the First Amendment (the U.S. government then countersued). In December 2024, the federal appeals court voted to uphold the ban, which then led the ban all the way to the highest court in the country: the Supreme Court.
And finally, on Friday, Jan. 17, a mere two days before the ban’s deadline, SCOTUS voted to uphold the ban, stating that while TikTok is “a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the national security concerns the ban is based upon are too great.
“TikTok’s scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, justify differential treatment to address the government’s national security concerns,” the court wrote in its official opinion on the case. “The challenged provisions further an important government interest unrelated to the suppression of free expression and do not burden substantially more speech than necessary to further that interest.”
So, what happens now?
Does SCOTUS’S Ruling Mean TikTok Is Automatically Banned?
Not exactly. SCOTUS’s ruling doesn’t automatically enforce the TikTok ban — it just affirms that the ban is legal. That means, as of Jan. 17, TikTok technically still has two days to find a buyer before the Jan. 19 ban is set to go into effect. Many individuals have reportedly been in talks to buy TikTok, from Shark Tank‘s Kevin O’Leary to Elon Musk, but there has been no serious progress reported on any deal that would save the app in less than 48 hours.
According to Reuters, TikTok is already preparing to shut down U.S. operations on Jan. 19, which could make it more difficult for any kind of last-ditch efforts to save the app.
Could Congress Postpone the ban’s deadline?
Possibly! Several members of Congress have been vocal about the need to extend the ban’s deadline, which would give TikTok more time to find a buyer. “We’re asking for the ability to be able to try rationally to resolve this issue so TikTok does not go dark,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said on Jan. 16, per Reuters. “Let’s take a breath, try to step back, buy some time, try to figure this out.” However, as of the time of publication, it’s unclear whether lawmakers will be able to pull off an extension before Jan. 19 arrives.
Could Biden Or Trump Reverse The Ban?
Those crossing their fingers for any kind of knight in shining armor to swoop in and save TikTok are wondering if it could come in the form of either the current or incoming president. For his part, it’s not looking like it will be Biden. Per the BBC, the White House released a statement following SCOTUS’s ruling, saying that “given the sheer fact of timing,” any actions regarding the implementation of the ban will fall on President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, one day after the ban is set to take effect.
Although he originally called for a TikTok ban back in 2020, Trump has changed his tune in recent months, saying the app has a “warm spot in [his] heart,” and he has advocated for the app to not go dark. But what Trump will do to stop or delay the ban — if anything — remains to be seen.
Can U.S. TikTok users still access the app once it’s banned?
According to the New York Times, the law banning TikTok means that any internet-hosting service or app store that still offers the TikTok app will be penalized, which essentially means that TikTok will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find or use when you’re in the U.S. According to a message shared to TikTok U.S. staffers by TikTok’s global head of HR, Nicky Raghavan, the TikTok U.S. offices will not automatically close due to this ban — however, what its employees will actually do for work remains to be seen.
As for the millions of people in the U.S. who use TikTok, many are looking for a new go-to platform to post, view, and interact with short-form video content. There are a few frontrunners, from well-known options like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts to newcomers like REDnote and Neptune. So far, there is no clear successor to TikTok.
What’s also not clear is whether TikTok will be gone from the U.S. for good, or if there is a chance for it to return after making whatever necessary changes will satisfy the U.S. government. For example, there could be a chance that TikTok is brought back if a non-Chinese entity purchases the app, even after the Jan. 19 ban. In fact, the ban going into effect could be the reality check ByteDance needs to spur the company to actually sell TikTok once and for all.
For now, the country will just have to wait and see.