by The popular social media app TikTok will likely become unavailable to its 170 million American users this Sunday, January 19, after months of fighting the federal government’s demand to divest itself of its China-based parent company ByteDance separate.
The Supreme Court last week heard arguments from TikTok and ByteDance, who argued that the ban was a violation of First Amendment rights and that the highest court in the land should stop the ban. But as of January 16, the justices had not made a decision.
The day after the ban is scheduled to take effect, President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in for his second term – TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to be in attendance – and he has reportedly considered issuing an executive order that would stop the ban on TikTok. Ban for up to 90 days.
As we inch closer to a federal ban on one of the most popular social media platforms, here’s what you should know about the situation.
Why is TikTok banned?
The federal government has argued that the platform poses a potential threat to national security because TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is based in China. Therefore, TikTok could remain active in the US if it separated from ByteDance and was sold to a US-based company. ByteDance has said it has no plans to sell TikTok.
During the Supreme Court hearing on January 10, Noel Francisco, the lawyer for TikTok and ByteDance, insisted that even though TikTok’s parent company is based in China, TikTok does not share user data or personal information with ByteDance and that the Chinese Government does not have any direct or indirect ownership or control over the company.
The Biden administration wrote in a Supreme Court brief that the law seeking to ban TikTok in the United States does not violate First Amendment rights because it seeks to separate the app from its parent company. which is “similar to approaches previously taken by Congress and the U.S.” Executive authority to address the national security risks posed by foreign-owned commercial enterprises.”
Where the Supreme Court is located
As of January 16, the Supreme Court has not made a decision on whether to uphold the TikTok ban. If the justices don’t issue a decision before Jan. 19, the ban will take effect that day – but may not be permanent.
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the federal government like the Federal Court of Appeal did in December, TikTok will be banned on January 19th. If the Supreme Court sides with TikTok, the app will be allowed to remain available in the US and owned by ByteDance.
Read more from Yahoo News: Key takeaways from the Supreme Court hearing on the potential TikTok ban
What happens on January 19th if TikTok is banned?
If you don’t have TikTok on your phone by January 19th, you won’t be able to download it after the ban goes into effect. In December, the House Special Committee on US-China Strategic Competition wrote letters to Apple and Google – which own the two main mobile app stores – reiterating that they must remove TikTok from their stores if the ban is implemented force occurs.
The Justice Department previously said that if you are one of the 170 million current TikTok users in the U.S., the ban “does not directly prohibit further use of TikTok” and does not immediately remove the app from individuals’ phones. Instead, the app will slowly become “unusable” over time without updates or technical help from TikTok.
However, Reuters reported on Wednesday, January 15, that TikTok planned to shut down the app entirely on January 19. TikTok did not respond to Yahoo News’ request for comment.
In response to the news, the Biden administration is considering options to prevent TikTok from being “suddenly banned on Sunday” in the U.S., an official told NBC News. The administration’s goal is for the ban to take effect in app stores on January 19, but not to immediately affect the functionality of downloaded apps.
Trump now says he doesn’t want to ban TikTok. Could he save it?
Trump has taken different positions on TikTok. When he was president in August 2020, he threatened to ban the app if ByteDance didn’t sell it, but several federal judges blocked his attempts at the time. However, when he ran for re-election in 2024, he opened his own TikTok account and told his followers that he would “SAVE TIK TOK IN AMERICA” if he won the election.
On December 27, Trump filed a legal brief asking the Supreme Court to delay its decision on the TikTok ban until after he officially takes office on January 20. The filing argues that the Supreme Court should give Trump and his new administration the opportunity to consider the policy questions in the case, particularly whether the ban violates Americans’ First Amendment rights . The filing also argues that Trump could find an alternative solution to the national security concerns associated with ByteDance.
As recently as January 3, Trump asked, “Why would I want to get rid of TikTok?”
Ultimately, however, he may not have a say in the matter, especially if the Supreme Court decides not to block the ban from taking effect.
As of this reporting, the Supreme Court has not publicly responded to Trump’s request, nor have the justices made a decision. The Justice Department publicly urged the justices to reject Trump’s request, saying it “takes no position” on the First Amendment debate that forms the basis of TikTok and ByteDance’s arguments.
Can Trump as President save TikTok?
If the Supreme Court allows the ban to take effect on January 19th, is there anything Trump can do to reverse that decision after he takes office on January 20th?
The law includes a provision that allows the president to suspend the TikTok ban for 90 days if ByteDance proves it is in the process of selling the app, Forbes reported. Trump himself could seek to suspend the ban for the first 90 days of his term, but without evidence that ByteDance is actively working to divest from TikTok, his decision could be challenged in court.
Another possibility would be for Trump to ask his Justice Department and attorney general not to enforce the ban, Alan Z. Rozenshtein, a former Justice Department national security adviser and an adjunct law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, wrote at Lawfare Media. However, in this case, most companies and individual users would likely be discouraged from using the app as it would still technically be considered a violation of the law.
The Washington Post reported on January 15 that Trump is reportedly considering an executive order once in office that would suspend the TikTok ban for 60 to 90 days so that his administration could negotiate either a sale or another solution to protect the app from being banned in the USA
However, it is not clear whether issuing an executive order would run counter to a law approved by Congress – and possibly the Supreme Court.
“They’re just press releases with nicer stationery,” Rozenshtein said, referring to executive orders. “TikTok will continue to be banned and it will continue to be illegal for Apple and Google to do business with them. But it will not fulfill the president’s intent to enforce the law even more formally.”
Anyone want to buy TikTok?
The only way to avoid a complete ban on TikTok in the US is for ByteDance to either sell the app or at least demonstrate that it is trying to divest itself of the app.
Several American companies and entrepreneurs have offered to buy TikTok from ByteDance, including former Los Angeles Dodgers owner and Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt, who assembled a group of investors in December. One of these investors is Kevin O’Leary, a Shark tank host who told Yahoo Finance that the group is “willing to pay up to $20 billion” for the app. Project Liberty announced last week that it had formally submitted an offer to ByteDance to buy TikTok.
YouTube’s most famous creator Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, posted on January 15 that he had met with several billionaires and had “an offer ready” to buy TikTok. He didn’t share much information about who he was meeting with or what the plan was.
“Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that Chinese government officials were reportedly discussing selling TikTok to Elon Musk, which includes language and expression.”
Companies like Oracle, Walmart and Microsoft expressed interest in buying TikTok in 2020.
However, ByteDance has made it clear since April that it has no intention of selling TikTok despite the US ban.
