TikTok Facing U.S. Ban on January 19 After Supreme Court Upholds Law

[MacRumors]

On Sunday, January 19, Apple will need to remove TikTok from the U.S. App Store, because the app will be officially banned in the United States. On the 19th, app distributors and websites will be prohibited from distributing, maintaining, or updating the TikTok app, though the app itself could continue to function on devices where it has already been downloaded. TikTok has said, however, that it plans to shut down the app when the ban begins.

TikTok did not receive a delay or reprieve from the United States Supreme Court, which today said [PDF] that it is upholding the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. TikTok can avoid a ban by severing its U.S. operations from Chinese control, which means that Chinese TikTok parent company ByteDance must divest the U.S. version of the app in order for it to continue to operate.

The law, which passed in April, requires TikTok to be sold to a non-Chinese company. ByteDance was given nine months to sell the app prior to when the ban was scheduled to go into effect, but the company has focused on appealing the ruling. ByteDance argued that the law was unconstitutional and violated the First Amendment, but the Supreme Court maintains that ByteDance does not have First Amendment rights as a Chinese company.

ByteDance has claimed that it is technologically impossible to divest TikTok, both due to the complexity of the code and the rearchitecture needed to uncouple it from ByteDance's software tools. ByteDance does not intend to hand over its proprietary algorithm, and the Chinese government has also opposed a sale so far. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled against TikTok, ByteDance and China may reconsider selling the app.

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. 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.

For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners' First Amendment rights. The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is affirmed.

Should ByteDance sell TikTok to a U.S. company, TikTok will be able to continue to operate as normal.

The TikTok ban will go into effect one day before Donald Trump takes office, and it is not clear how the administration change will impact the outcome. In a statement to CNN, Trump said "It ultimately goes up to me, so you're going to see what I'm going to do." He went on to say "Congress has given me the decision, so I'll be making the decision."

Trump asked the Supreme Court to delay making a decision and to delay TikTok's ban, but the court declined to do so. It will be up to Trump's administration to enforce the law going forward, and there are avenues that would allow Trump to circumvent the Supreme Court's ruling so that TikTok remains operational, including an executive order that delays the ban.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: TikTok Facing U.S. Ban on January 19 After Supreme Court Upholds Law

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I don't use TikTok, or X (or ever used twitter) or threads, or mastodon, or blue sky...so don't really care.

What I do care about is congress saying it's unsafe with a "trust me bro" instead of presenting, for everyone to see, exactly what the specific issues are, in detail.

That's all.

 

[anthogag]

Tick…tick…tick….tick….BAN \o/ hip-hop hooray \o/

 

[jz0309]

Well, the last word is not spoken yet …

 

[Plutonius]

It's just the app that is banned until the Chinese no longer own it. For people that have the app, it will not be updated and should work for awhile. Otherwise, people can still access it through a browser if they really want to.

This was an unanimous decision by the Supreme Court and the next administration can't reverse the decision through an executive decision since this is a law that was passed in Congress.

 

[jz0309]

And of course Apple and Google will comply with the law and the app will disappear from the AppStores…

 

[CarpalMac]

I don't use TikTok, or X (or ever used twitter) or threads, or mastodon, or blue sky...so don't really care.

What I do care about is congress saying it's unsafe with a "trust me bro" instead of presenting, for everyone to see, exactly what the specific issues are, in detail.

That's all.

Ignoring the China element, do we really know what these other services do with theirs?

The count of 3bn+ monthly Facebook users demonstrates that the majority of people globally simply don't care about privacy.

 

[Attirex]

(Timmy donates $3 billion to Trump because reasons)

 

[kemal]

I don't believe for a second that TikTok is magically independent of the Chinese government!

 

[jz0309]

It's just the app that is banned until the Chinese no longer own it. For people that have the app, it will not be updated and should work for awhile. Otherwise, people can still access it through a browser if they really want to.

This was an unanimous decision by the Supreme Court and the next administration can't reverse the decision through an executive decision since this is a law that was passed in Congress.

Supposedly bytedance said it will cease operations in the US when the ban is effective.
And supposedly the new admin is looking for ways to delay…

Get your popcorn ready

 

[platinumaqua]

If existing installations still work, this is only preventing new users from joining. It might create a flappy bird situation again where phones with it installed are suddenly worth more.

 

[Vulkan]

Good Riddance

 

[CEmajr]

Looks like it’s going away if they don’t sell. Trump can’t override a law passed by Congress with executive action. It really played out like a game of seeing who would blink first between China and the US. I think they might reconsider selling now.

 

[mansplains]

It's just the app that is banned until the Chinese no longer own it. For people that have the app, it will not be updated and should work for awhile. Otherwise, people can still access it through a browser if they really want to.

Tiktok could remain available for android outside of the Play store, and/or as a web service. Instead they’re opting for shutdown in order to mobilize their user base. Although I guess many will VPN.

 

[8281]

I don't use TikTok, or X (or ever used twitter) or threads, or mastodon, or blue sky...so don't really care.

What I do care about is congress saying it's unsafe with a "trust me bro" instead of presenting, for everyone to see, exactly what the specific issues are, in detail.

That's all.

I mean they’ve refused so far to sell an app that would net them hundreds of billions of dollars, which, if a truly independent company exists to make money, is a pretty good indication that it’s an intelligence op the CCP is unwilling to give up. Imagine if the Soviet Union owned NBC in 1955. It’s the same idea and we’re not the only ones banning the app.

 

[CapitalIdea]

Well, the last word is not spoken yet …

The last word was spoken. This happened by a law, passed by Congress and signed by a president. There are two paths from here.

The first path means Congress repeals the law which implies that they are complaining about national security (instead of Meta’s failure to compete) was a lie.

The other is that Trump simply refuses to enforce the law (but expects companies to still carry that cloud of liability over them which they would never do because one tantrum from him puts them in a financial position), which undermines every time he has ever complained about his predecessors not enforcing a law.

 

[CapitalIdea]

I mean they’ve refused so far to sell an app that would net them hundreds of billions of dollars, which, if a truly independent company exists to make money, is a pretty good indication that it’s an intelligence op the CCP is unwilling to give up. Imagine if the Soviet Union owned NBC in 1955. It’s the same idea and we’re not the only ones banning the app.

The company is valued at $50Bn, not “hundreds of billions.”

 

[LogicalApex]

And nothing of value was lost...

 

[HQuest]

Me waiting for the VPN providers to begin offerings (for a premium) of VPN servers in mainland China, for those desperate for moar TikTok. And why not use another country such as Canada, Mexico or the UK? Because China will never cease control of TikTok as it is today, so that's the only way TikTok users will be "safe".

 

[Saturn007]

This is the most disturbing aspect of this entire affair:

In a statement to CNN, Trump said "It ultimately goes up to me, so you're going to see what I'm going to do."​

​

He went on to say "Congress has given me the decision, so I'll be making the decision."​

​

None of that is true and all of it represents a disturbing descent into autocracy.

As to the ban itself… shouldn't other China-linked apps be banned as well? For example, the to-do app, Tick Tick, would have far more revealing private information on its servers than Tik-Tok does. It has very strict stated standards to protect user data, but is reputed to be linked to a Chinese entity that would be subject to Chinese government orders. Tick Tick is probably not a good example — no doubt, there are directly Chinese-owned apps that the ban should apply to.

But, as others have noted here and around the net, the fundamental problem is surveillance capitalism, with major corporations in the U.S. and around the world scarfing up people's private, personal data, compiling it into dossiers, and selling it on the open market.

Tracking people's browsing, mining their private data, and selling it should be illegal — full stop. Any app or website that does it should be shut down and, if the company behind it persists, it should be taken down, too.

 

[Saturn007]

One other, scary thought.

Elon Musk will buy it!

 

[JPack]

The last word was spoken. This happened by a law, passed by Congress and signed by a president. There are two paths from here.

The first path means Congress repeals the law which implies that they are complaining about national security (instead of Meta’s failure to compete) was a lie.

The other is that Trump simply refuses to enforce the law (but expects companies to still carry that cloud of liability over them which they would never do because one tantrum from him puts them in a financial position), which undermines every time he has ever complained about his predecessors not enforcing a law.

President indeed has final say, just read the text of the law. He has the sole discretion to determine whether a "qualified divestiture" has occurred.

The law has an out. It comes down to whether Trump uses it.

Can Trump Save TikTok?

Trump will have to convince companies like Apple and Oracle that he can protect them from the law.

www.lawfaremedia.org

 

[dannyyankou]

For the longest time, I had issues with a TikTok ban from a first amendment perspective. But I thought of an analogy that kinda made me change my mind.

Let’s say there was a bar in the United States, and a lot of people hang out at this bar with friends and socialize and have a good time. But then, you find out this bar is owned and operated by China. On top of that, you find out this bar is filled with Chinese spies who are eavesdropping on you and collecting your information.

The US government would have a right to shut this bar down. Right?

 

[Chuckeee]

Me waiting for the VPN providers to begin offerings (for a premium) of VPN servers in mainland China, for those desperate for moar TikTok. And why not use another country such as Canada, Mexico or the UK? Because China will never cease control of TikTok as it is today, so that's the only way TikTok users will be "safe".

But TikTok is not available in China, so a VPN server in China is not a viable alternative to accessing TikTok

 

[sw1tcher]

Meanwhile, TikTok users are moving to the new TikTok called Lemon 8 which is owned/operated by... TikTok 🤣

TikTok pushes users to sister app Lemon8 ahead of potential ban

Lemon8 could similarly face a ban under the same law that could ban TikTok.

www.nbcnews.com