By Marta Karpovich
On Friday, January 17, the Supreme Court made a landmark decision to ban TikTok in the United States, effective Monday, January 20.
The hearing over whether TikTok should remain available to users in the United States was a great source of political and social contention, as policymakers in Washington have threatened to get rid of the app for over a year without taking any action.
The issue with TikTok cited in the ruling pertained to national security concerns. TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, which has caused officials in Washington to question whether the app has been used to gather information about Americans for the Chinese government. While ByteDance is a private company and not officially owned by the Chinese government, it is, like most Chinese organizations, legally required to establish an in-house Communist Party committee run by party members. The extent to which this committee controls the content flowing in and out of the United States from TikTok is unknown, and this uncertainty was the impetus for bringing TikTok to the Supreme Court.
Unlike American companies, foreign-run organizations are not protected by First Amendment freedom of speech rights, which means that the American government can censor the Chinese app as much as it likes without infringing upon constitutionally protected freedoms. The question of TikTok’s future in the United States was never about speech, however, but about the collection and spread of information to Americans by the Chinese government. Officials are not only worried about China gathering information about Americans, but that the country is sharing propaganda with American TikTok users to influence their political and social beliefs. The concept of the For You Page on TikTok added to this concern, as users cannot choose what they see on the app, but are rather fed content based on what the algorithm thinks they might like.
The American government has specifically stated that they are concerned that China could use data collected from American TikTok users to “blackmail” or “advance its geopolitical interests” by “sowing discord and disinformation during a crisis.”
Prior to the Supreme Court ruling, Congress gave ByteDance an ultimatum: sell the company to American owners and TikTok will stay active in the United States, or continue to run ByteDance under Chinese ownership and the app will be banned in the USA. ByteDance refused to consider selling the company, which placed TikTok’s future in the hands of the highest court in America.
ByteDance announced, after the Supreme Court banned TikTok in the United States in a unanimous decision, that the app would “go black,” which means that 170 million American users would instantly lose all access to the platform. The app stopped working on January 19 for most users, with a message from TikTok stating, “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.” TikTok was also taken off all app stores on Sunday.
However, only twelve hours later, TikTok once again became available to users in the United States and was returned to app stores. This comeback was a response to President-elect Donald Trump declaring that he was determined to “save TikTok.” When American users opened the app twelve hours after its erasure, they got a message that said, “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”
The future for TikTok in the United States is now uncertain, as Americans question whether President Donald Trump did, in fact, bring TikTok back for good. Since the Supreme Court’s ruling on January 17, many Americans have panicked over their loss of the beloved app, which has become an unhealthy addiction for many young people. What the events on January 19 and 20 will do for the new President and his popularity with Gen Z, as well as the hundreds of Americans who have built careers on the platform, is unknown.
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