TikTok is likely seeing its final days in the U.S. after the Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law banning the social media app starting on Sunday if its Chinese parent company does not sell it.
President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan measure in April requiring China-based ByteDance to either sell the app to a U.S. buyer or face a ban. ByteDance has said it would not sell the video sharing platform.
U.S. lawmakers have raised national security concerns over TikTok’s ties to China, arguing that the app could be pressured to share user data with the Chinese government, and that it could be influenced to show certain types of content to U.S.-based users.
TikTok, which counts more than 170 million U.S.-based monthly users, filed a lawsuit arguing that the law — the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act — violated its First Amendment rights. But the law was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in December, which agreed that the Chinese-owned app is a potential threat to national security.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments from TikTok and ByteDance earlier this month, and upheld the appeals court’s ruling ahead of the Sunday deadline.
Under the law, TikTok would be made unavailable for download from the Apple (AAPL+1.06%) and Google (GOOGL+0.79%) app stores, and network providers would have to block access to the website. The requirements would eventually make the app “unworkable” over time without support and updates, according to the Justice Department.
But the website The Information reported earlier this week that TikTok will shut off the app for U.S. users as soon as the ban is in effect.
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