The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday upholding the federal ban on TikTok, a popular social media app used by 170 million Americans.
In a unanimous decision, SCOTUS agreed with the government that "national security concerns" regarding the app's affiliation with the People's Republic of China and its data collection outweighed users' First Amendment rights.
"There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community," the opinion said. "But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary."
Last April, Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would compel ByteDance, the China-based company that owns TikTok, to divest from the app by this Sunday.
TikTok claimed that the law "was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed, and hypothetical information," and Noel Francisco, who argued before SCOTUS on behalf of TikTok and ByteDance, said that if the law goes into effect, the app will "go dark" on January 19.
At that point, third-party providers like Apple and Google could face penalties for offering the app on their respective stores, and users who have already downloaded the app will likely no longer receive updates for it. Some TikTok influencers have already begun migrating their content to other platforms.
Though he signed the ban into law, President Joe Biden has signaled that enforcement of it will fall to the incoming administration. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that while "TikTok should remain available to Americans," it should have "American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law."
'The Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it.'
With the deadline fast approaching, President-elect Donald Trump has appeared interested in reaching a middle way regarding TikTok. He asked SCOTUS last month to suspend implementation of the law so that his administration could work out a "political resolution" for the matter. TikTok CEO Shou Chew will be one of several tech titans to attend Trump's inauguration on Monday.
The courts have thus far not cooperated. Back in December, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals — which included an Obama appointee, a Reagan appointee, and a Trump appointee — upheld the ban.
Now with SCOTUS — composed of one Biden appointee, three Trump appointees, two Obama appointees, two George W. Bush appointees, and one George H.W. Bush appointee — upholding the ban, Trump may have to get creative to find a solution.
Shortly after the ruling came down on Friday, Trump indicated he had already anticipated that SCOTUS would keep the ban in place. "The Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it. My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!" he posted to Truth Social .
In a separate post, Trump also hinted that he may be able to reach a solution about TikTok with Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping directly.
I just spoke to Chairman Xi Jinping of China. The call was a very good one for both China and the U.S.A. It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately. We discussed balancing Trade, Fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects. President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!
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President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump may have conducted their presidencies quite differently, but they shared the same skepticism of TikTok.
TikTok, the widely used social media platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has received mounting criticism in recent years from American public officials for its connections with the Communist Party of China.
President Trump signed an executive order to force TikTok to separate from ByteDance. The move was ultimately blocked by a U.S. federal judge in 2020. But this year, President Biden signed a “TikTok Ban Bill,” which requires ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American company or face expulsion from U.S. app stores.
Mike Solana, founder of Pirate Wires and chief marketing officer at Founders Fund, joined James Poulos to share why he thinks TikTok poses a serious national security threat:
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Despite spending no more than 10 minutes on TikTok a day, Solana said he grew concerned with a potent, recurring feature on the app. No matter what, it served him an ad displaying an image of an impoverished Gaza. "It comes back relentlessly, the exact same ad, every single day. You're forced to look at it.” Who determines which images are selected to bombard American viewers? “I think that's something that our government should care about," Solana said.
Social media changes the way people think, he continued. “It shapes your sense of what is the perspective you're supposed to have,” much as advertising forces you to “look around subconsciously for cues on what to believe. ... The more people who are doing something, the more you feel that's what you should do and/or how you should feel even if you are fiercely independent.”
To hear more of what Mike Solana had to say about AI, social media, Bitcoin, and more, watch the full episode of "Zero Hour" with James Poulos.
America was convinced tech would complete our mastery of the world. Instead, we got catastrophe — constant crises from politics and the economy down to the spiritual fiber of our being. Time’s up for the era we grew up in. How do we pick ourselves up and begin again? To find out, visionary author and media theorist James Poulos cracks open the minds — and hearts — of today’s top figures in politics, tech, ideas, and culture on "Zero Hour" on BlazeTV.
Americans have a severe social media addiction and it shows.
Letting TikTok go and enforcing the ban it deserves is the right course of action.
TikTok U.S. won’t operate as it has been in January, and that is a positive step for our national security — and for the safety and mental health of our youth.
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