US Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban, leaving app's fate to Trump
(VOVWORLD) - The Supreme Court upheld on Friday a law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds if its Chinese parent company ByteDance does not sell it, putting the popular short-video app on track to go dark in just two days.
 (Source: VNA) |
The court's 9-0 decision throws the social media platform - and its 170 million American users - into limbo, and its fate in the hands of Donald Trump, who has vowed to rescue TikTok after returning to the presidency on Monday.
The law was passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress last year and signed by President Joe Biden, though a growing chorus of lawmakers who voted it are now seeking to keep TikTok operating in the United States.
TikTok, ByteDance and some of the app's users challenged the law, but the Supreme Court decided that it did not violate the US Constitution's First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech as they had argued.
Users who have downloaded TikTok would theoretically still be able to use the app, except that the law also bars US companies starting Sunday from providing services to enable the distribution, maintenance, or updating of it.