With the Supreme Court’s move on Friday to uphold a ban on video-sharing app TikTok, the social media app could be shut down as early as Sunday.
There is still some uncertainty over TikTok’s future after a court rejected parent company ByteDance’s argument that banning the app infringes on users’ free speech. That’s because the Democratic administration, in its final days in power, doesn’t plan to enforce the ban, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden.
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President-elect Donald Trump, who first called for a ban in 2020 as a matter of national security, now says he thinks there is a way to keep TikTok up and running in the US. The ban requires ByteDance to find a buyer or someone to take over TikTok’s US operations.
Trump posted Friday on his social media platform Truth Social that his decision on TikTok “will be made in the not-too-distant future, but I need time to review the situation. Stay tuned!”
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
In a video posted Friday on TikTok, the app’s CEO Shou Zi Chew told users: “Rest assured that we will do everything in our power to ensure that our platform thrives as your online home for creativity and discovery limitless, and a source of inspiration and joy for years to come.
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Why does the US government want to ban TikTok?
During his first term, Trump called for a ban on TikTok over concerns that the Chinese-owned social media platform was a national security risk because it collected data on American citizens that could be shared with the Chinese government.
TikTok has said it has never been asked to provide US user data to the Chinese government and would not be asked if it was.
In 2020, Trump issued a national emergency regarding TikTok, saying the app gave Beijing access to “personal and proprietary information of Americans — potentially allowing China to track the locations of federal employees and contractors, build files of personal information for blackmail and corporate espionage”.
Trump’s efforts to ban the app during his first term were ultimately blocked by multiple judges.
In 2021, Biden issued a new executive order that said ByteDance “continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States” and tasked the Commerce Department with reviewing and assessing the risks that TikTok and other applications may present.
In December 2022, Biden signed a bill banning the use of TikTok on government equipment, and subsequently, legislation was drafted to ban the app in the US if conditions were not met.
Congress voted for a ban in April 2024. Before the ban vote, lawmakers raised concerns about Beijing’s ability to spy on Americans and spread propaganda through TikTok. After the Biden administration’s intelligence briefings, senators — both Democrats and Republicans — said they were convinced TikTok posed a serious threat to national security.
The Senate in April 2024 overwhelmingly approved the bill, which was part of a $95 billion foreign aid package, by a vote of 79-18. This came after the House approved the TikTok portion of the bill 360-58. Biden then signed the legislation into law.
While TikTok users may be “skeptical” about the need for action on TikTok, “they haven’t seen what Congress has seen,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee, told the Senate for Intelligence. before the April 2024 vote.
“They haven’t been in the classified briefings that Congress has held that have delved deeper into some of the threats posed by foreign control of TikTok,” Warner said.
Will TikTok be banned? Probably not and here’s why
In an interesting twist, Trump may issue an executive order saying that TikTok is actually good for national security because the app is preferred over other Chinese-owned alternatives like RedNote, an app that is subject to censorship by the Communist Party, he said. Anupam Chander, one. professor at Georgetown University School of Law in Georgetown.
Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said in a report Friday that he expects the Trump administration to delay the ban or ask the Justice Department not to enforce the law, which would allow Apple and Google to keep TikTok in stores their of applications.
Such an order would also allow internet providers and hosting firms to leave any TikTok assets and data on its systems for the time being, he said. “Behind the scenes, we believe the Trump administration is working aggressively to set the stage for a deal and structure for TikTok moving forward,” Ives said.
Elon Musk could play a big role in making TikTok work in the U.S. by either buying the app’s U.S. operations or overseeing the deal, Ives told USA TODAY. “Musk has a front row seat in the Trump White House and (is) the only person (who) would be approved by Beijing for this acquisition,” Ives said.
Contributing: USA TODAY’s Riley Beggin, Greta Cross, Maureen Groppe, Jessica Guynn, Bailey Schulz and Mary Walrath-Holdridge; Reuters.
Follow Mike Snider on Threads, Bluesky and X: mikegsnider &@mikegsnider.bsky.social &@mikesnider.
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