Clock ticking for TikTok as US Supreme Court upholds banning law

Time could be running out for TikTok in the USA after the country's Supreme Court upheld a federal law banning the app. The court unanimously upheld the law, which will see the video app banned unless it is sold by its China-based parent company.

The ban is proposed due to the app's ties to China - which lawmakers in the country believe means it poses a national security risk. The Supreme Court rules this overcomes concerns about limiting speech by the app or its 170 million users in America.

A sale does not appear imminent and, although experts have said the app will not disappear from existing users’ phones once the law takes effect on January 19, new users will not be able to download it and updates will not be available - the Press Association reports - which will eventually mean the app is unworkable.

The decision came against the backdrop of unusual political agitation by US President-elect Donald Trump, who vowed that he could negotiate a solution and the administration of President Joe Biden, which has signalled it will not enforce the law beginning on Sunday, his final full day in office.

“TikTok should remain available to Americans but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement, noting that actions to implement the law will fall to the new administration.

Mr Trump, mindful of TikTok’s popularity – and his own 14.7 million followers on the app – finds himself on the opposite side of the argument from prominent Senate Republicans, who fault TikTok’s Chinese owner for not finding a buyer before now.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who defended the law at the Supreme Court for the Democratic Biden administration, told the justices last week that it is uncertain whether the prospect of a sale once the law is in effect could trigger a 90-day respite for TikTok.

During arguments, the justices were told by a lawyer for TikTok and ByteDance, the Chinese technology company that is its parent, how difficult it would be to consummate a deal, especially since Chinese law restricts the sale of the proprietary algorithm that has made the social media platform wildly successful.

The app allows users to watch hundreds of videos in about half an hour because some are only a few seconds long, according to a lawsuit filed last year by the state of Kentucky complaining that TikTok is designed to be addictive and harms children’s mental health.

Similar suits were filed by more than a dozen US states. TikTok has called the claims inaccurate. The dispute over TikTok’s ties to China has come to embody the geopolitical competition between Washington and Beijing.

The US has said it is concerned about TikTok collecting vast swaths of user data, including sensitive information on viewing habits, that could fall into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion.

Officials have also warned the algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way that is difficult to detect.

TikTok points out the US has not presented evidence that China has attempted to manipulate content on its US platform or gather American user data through TikTok.