TikTok’s last-ditch effort to avoid its impending ban in the United States has failed. On Friday, the US Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law that forces ByteDance to sell TikTok or else face a ban in the United States.
Perhaps the largest unknown right now is how the impending transition from the Biden administration to the Trump administration will impact the ban.
Updated January 17, 2025 at 10:51 am ET with new statement from the Biden administration and Trump below.
In its ruling on Friday, the United States Supreme Court said:
As of January 19, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act will make it unlawful for companies in the United States to provide services to distribute, maintain, or update the social media platform TikTok, unless U. S. operation of the platform is severed from Chinese control. Petitioners are two TikTok operating entities and a group of U. S. TikTok users. We consider whether the Act, as applied to petitioners, violates the First Amendment.
The law in question didn’t explicitly ban TikTok but gave China-linked parent company ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok. That timeline expires on Sunday, at least technically.
There are other factors at play here beyond the law itself. In a statement on Thursday, the Biden administration largely punted the implementation of the ban to the Trump administration, which takes over on Monday, January 20.
“Our position on this has been clear: TikTok should continue to operate under American ownership,” a White House official said to ABC News. “Given the timing of when it goes into effect over a holiday weekend a day before inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement.”
Meanwhile, Trump had called on the Supreme Court to delay the law from going into effect on January 19. In a brief last week, the Trump team said the president-elect “possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government.”
Today’s ruling from the Supreme Court shows the justices did not take Trump’s request into consideration.
One further unknown is how Google and Apple will respond to the ban on January 19. Even if the Biden administration has shifted the responsibility of enforcing the ban to the Trump administration, Apple and Google are the ones on the hook to implement the ban effective January 19.
Assuming the law goes into effect as currently planned, Apple and Google will be barred from hosting TikTok in the App Store and Play Store, respectively. Whether the two companies want to take the risk that the law won’t actually be enforced remains to be seen.
The law, as written, only requires the app to be removed from those app stores. TikTok, however, is expected to take things a step further and cut off access entirely to the service on January 19 – even for users who have already downloaded the app on their phones.
Biden’s response
Shortly after the Supreme Court announced its decision, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued the following statement:
The Administration, like the rest of the country, has awaited the decision just made by the U.S. Supreme Court on the TikTok matter. President Biden’s position on TikTok has been clear for months, including since Congress sent a bill in overwhelming, bipartisan fashion to the President’s desk: TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law.
Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday.
Trump’s response
Meanwhile, Trump issued his own statement to CNN’s Pamela Brown:
“It ultimately goes up to me, so you’re going to see what I’m going to do. Congress has given me the decision, so I’ll be making the decision.”
Putting aside Trump’s lack of specifics, nothing in the law suggests Congress has given him the final say on whether to enforce the TikTok ban.
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