this Supreme Court Law upheld on Friday requiring China’s ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok by Sunday or face effective ban Popular American social video app

ByteDance has so far refused to sell TikTok, which means many U.S. users may Lost access Apps arrive this weekend. The app may still be available for those who already have TikTok installed on their phones, although ByteDance has also threatened to shut down the app.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration, upholding the president’s Apps Act to protect Americans from Control by Foreign Adversaries. Joe Biden sign April.

“There is no question that for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok provides a unique and broad source of expression, participation, and community,” the Supreme Court opinion said. “But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address Its national security concerns about TikTok’s data collection practices and relationships with foreign adversaries are well supported.”

Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch wrote the concurrence.

The fate of TikTok America is now in the hands of the president-elect Donald TrumpHe initially supported a ban on TikTok during his first administration but has since changed his stance on the matter. december, trump ask Supreme Court Suspension of the law and give his government “the opportunity to seek a political solution to the contentious issues in this case.”

After taking office, Trump began to be more favorable to TikTok. Met in February With billionaire Republican megadonor Jeff Yass. Yas is a major investor in ByteDance, and he also owns stakes in ByteDance’s owners truth societyTrump’s social media platform.

Trump will be inaugurated on Monday, the day after the TikTok sales deadline. TikTok CEO Shou Chew is one of several technology leaders expected to attendsitting on the podium.

The country’s top court said in its opinion that while “data collection and analysis are common practices in this digital age,” TikTok’s sheer size and its “vulnerability to control by foreign adversaries, as well as the vast amounts of sensitive data collected by the platform,” have caused national concern Security concerns.

Under legal terms, third-party Internet service providers such as apple and Google will be punished for supporting TikTok, owned by ByteDance, after the January 19 deadline.

If internet service providers and app store owners comply, they will remove TikTok from their respective app stores, preventing users from downloading TikTok or installing the updates needed to make the app work properly.

Representatives for TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated President Biden’s support for the law in a statement, saying: “TikTok should remain available to Americans, but only by U.S. or other ownership, to address National security concerns identified by Congress in enacting this law.”

“Given the timing, this government recognizes that action to implement this law must be the responsibility of the next government that takes office on Monday,” Pierre said.

Kate Ruane, director of the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology, criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling, saying in a statement that it “undermines the free expression of hundreds of millions of TikTok users in this country and around the world.”

“Individuals use the app to create, share information, get news, comment on current issues and promote their businesses — the very expressions the First Amendment is designed to protect,” Ruane said.

In December, member of the House of Representatives Special Committee on the Communist Party of China Sent letter In the letter, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai urged executives to start preparing to comply with the law and reminded them of their responsibilities as app store operators.

Last Friday, Supreme Court hears oral arguments From lawyers representing TikTok, content creators and the U.S. government. Noel Francisco, TikTok’s lead attorney, argued that the law violated the First Amendment rights of the app’s 170 million U.S. users. Meanwhile, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Elizabeth Preloga countered that the app’s alleged ties to the People’s Republic of China through its parent company ByteDance posed a threat to national security.

After the oral arguments, many legal experts believed that the U.S. Supreme Court seemed to be more favorable to the U.S. government’s case involving TikTok’s alleged suspicious relationship with the Chinese government.

Many TikTok creators have been telling their fans to find them on competing social platforms like Google’s YouTube, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, CNBC report. Separately, CNBC reported that Instagram leaders arranged a meeting after last Friday’s Supreme Court hearing to instruct employees to prepare for a wave of users who would see the court support the law.

Chinese social media apps and RedNote, similar to TikTok, tops the list Search results on Apple’s App Store on Monday showed TikTok’s millions of users looking for alternatives.

The Chinese government has also weighed contingency plan Elon Musk will acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations as part of multiple options aimed at preventing the app from being effectively banned in the U.S., Bloomberg reports report on Monday. The plan is one of several the Chinese government is considering as part of larger discussions involving cooperation with the incoming Trump administration, the report said.

If ByteDance decides to sell TikTok to a U.S. company or investor group, potential buyers may be required to pay the following fees: US$40 billion and US$50 billionThat’s according to estimates from CFRA senior vice president of research Angelo Zino.

watch: SCOTUS hears TikTok ban case.