Supreme Court upholds law to ban TikTok unless a sale happens imminently

ByteDance has until Sunday to sell the U.S. operations of TikTok or be banned in the country.

The lengthy saga of the United States Government vs TikTok may soon be coming to an end. This morning, the Supreme Court upheld a federal law that will ban TikTok on January 19th unless owner ByteDance divests from the company.

Today was the last major chance for TikTok to avoid a ban in America, but that won’t be happening. In its unanimous decision, the Supreme Court cited the app’s ties to China as a major concern for national security. While ByteDance could technically still sell off its U.S. TikTok operations by Sunday to avoid a ban, the Associated Press reports that the company is not close to a deal with any potential buyers.

The ban of TikTok will come at an interesting time, as January 19 will be President Joe Biden’s final day in office. He will be succeeded the following day by Donald Trump, who said he will find a solution to keep TikTok available in America.

If and when TikTok is banned, it won’t be automatically deleted from phones and other devices in the United States. Instead, it’ll be removed from digital storefronts, and the lack of updates will eventually render the app unusable.