Why is TikTok getting banned? What’s behind the regulation that might shutter the app

Washington — The 170 million TikTok customers within the U.S. could possibly be in for a impolite awakening come Sunday in the event that they immediately discover the enormously in style video-sharing app is inaccessible due to a regulation handed by a bipartisan majority in Congress final 12 months.

Lawmakers and U.S. officers have sounded the alarm for years concerning the supposed dangers that TikTok’s ties to China pose to nationwide safety, and Congress moved final 12 months to drive TikTok’s Chinese language dad or mum firm, ByteDance, to promote its stake within the app or be minimize off from the U.S. market. The regulation gave the corporate a deadline of Jan. 19 — in the future earlier than a brand new president would take workplace.

That deadline is now right here, with no signal of a sale in sight. TikTok’s last-ditch authorized problem failed on Friday, when the Supreme Court docket stated the regulation doesn’t violate the First Modification. 

The Biden White Home stated it can go away enforcement of the regulation to the incoming Trump administration, and President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to “save” the app. However TikTok has hinted that it might nonetheless take itself offline as soon as the regulation is in impact, a transfer that would go away content material creators and customers within the lurch as the corporate seeks a option to get again on agency authorized footing. 

Here is what to know concerning the TikTok ban and the way we bought right here:

Why did Congress wish to ban TikTok? 

U.S. officers have repeatedly warned that TikTok threatens nationwide safety as a result of the Chinese language authorities might use it as a automobile to spy on Individuals or covertly affect the U.S. public by amplifying or suppressing sure content material. 

The priority is warranted, they stated, as a result of Chinese language nationwide safety legal guidelines require organizations to cooperate with intelligence gathering. FBI Director Christopher Wray instructed Home Intelligence Committee members final 12 months that the Chinese language authorities might compromise Individuals’ units via the software program. 

Because the Home took up the divest-or-ban regulation in April 2024, Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, in contrast it to a “spy balloon in Individuals’ telephones.” Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, stated that lawmakers discovered in labeled briefings “how rivers of information are being collected and shared in methods that aren’t well-aligned with American safety pursuits.” 

“Why is it a safety menace?” Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri stated Friday. “When you have TikTok in your cellphone presently, it could actually monitor your whereabouts, it could actually learn your textual content messages, it could actually monitor your keystrokes. It has entry to your cellphone information.” 

If the Chinese language authorities will get its fingers on that info, “it isn’t only a nationwide safety menace, it is a private safety menace,” Hawley stated. 

In 2022, TikTok started an initiative often called “Mission Texas” to safeguard American customers’ information on servers within the U.S. and ease lawmakers’ fears. The Justice Division stated the plan was inadequate as a result of it nonetheless allowed some U.S. information to move to China. 

Although the divest-or-ban regulation handed with bipartisan assist, some lawmakers have been vital of the measure, agreeing with TikTok that it infringes on Individuals’ free speech rights. 

“A lot of the causes the federal government banned it have been primarily based on accusations, not proof,” Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky stated Friday. “[TikTok has] by no means been tried and located responsible of sharing info with the communist authorities.” 

Others have modified their tune because the deadline for a ban neared, together with Trump, who tried to ban the app with an govt order throughout his first time period that was struck down within the courts. 

“The irony in all of that is that Donald Trump was the primary one to level on the market’s an issue,” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the highest Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, stated Thursday. Warner stated the Trump administration “did a fantastic job of convincing me and overwhelming members of Congress” concerning the dangers. 

TikTok has its day on the Supreme Court docket 

Throughout arguments earlier than the Supreme Court docket on Jan. 10, TikTok’s lawyer didn’t deny the potential nationwide safety dangers because the justices appeared vital of the corporate’s authorized problem.

“I believe Congress and the president have been involved that China was accessing details about thousands and thousands of Individuals, tens of thousands and thousands of Individuals, together with youngsters, individuals of their 20s, that they might use that info over time to develop spies, to show individuals, to blackmail individuals, individuals who a technology from now will likely be working within the FBI or the CIA or within the State Division,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh stated. “Is that not a practical evaluation by Congress and the president of the dangers right here?” 

Noel Francisco, who represented TikTok, responded, “I am not disputing the dangers. I am disputing the implies that they’ve chosen.” 

Solicitor Normal Elizabeth Prelogar asserted that TikTok collects “unprecedented quantities” of non-public information that will be “extremely priceless” to the Chinese language authorities by giving it “a strong instrument for harassment, recruitment and espionage.” 

“For years, the Chinese language authorities has sought to construct detailed profiles about Individuals, the place we reside and work, who our pals and coworkers are what our pursuits are and what our vices are,” she stated, citing main information breaches that the U.S. has attributed to China during the last decade, together with the hack of the Workplace of Personnel Administration that compromised the private info of thousands and thousands of federal workers.

The Supreme Court docket’s TikTok choice

In defending the regulation earlier than the Supreme Court docket, the Justice Division pointed to 2 essential nationwide safety justifications: countering China’s assortment of information from TikTok’s 170 million U.S. customers and its purported capacity to govern content material on the app to additional its geopolitical pursuits.

The Supreme Court docket’s unanimous ruling hinged on the primary justification: that China, via the app and its dad or mum firm, Beijing-based ByteDance, can amass huge quantities of knowledge from American customers. The justices discovered that Congress didn’t violate the First Modification by taking motion to deal with that menace. Congress, it stated, “had good cause to single out TikTok for particular remedy.”

The court docket shunned backing the federal government’s curiosity in stopping China’s purported covert manipulation of content material, which the Biden administration had cited as a nationwide safety justification for the regulation.

“One man’s ‘covert content material manipulation’ is one other’s ‘editorial discretion,'” Gorsuch wrote in an opinion concurring in judgment. “Journalists, publishers, and audio system of every kind routinely make less-than-transparent judgments about what tales to inform and learn how to inform them. With out query, the First Modification has a lot to say about the appropriate to make these selections.”

contributed to this report.