The US Supreme Court TOLERATED The federal government will ban TikTok if the popular video-sharing app doesn’t find someone to sell itself.

Incoming President Trump asked the Supreme Court to delay the implementation of the law. It declined and there is no clear buyer for TikTok lined up. If there is no change, the ban will begin on Sunday, the day before Trump’s inauguration. Biden said he would not implement the ban and let Trump handle the problem.

How did we get here? TikTok is owned by China-based company ByteDance and has successfully argued with lawmakers over the past few years that it has been feeding large amounts of American data to servers owned by the Chinese Communist Party. In 2024, a bipartisan bill was passed that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok or ban it from US shores.

ByteDance fought the decision all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing that the sale was a violation of the First Amendment Rights of millions of Americans. It was an argument that the Supreme Court did not find persuasive.

“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a unique and broad outlet for expression, a means of engagement, and a source of community,” it said in its decision. “But Congress has determined that the divestiture is necessary to address well-founded national security concerns about TikTok’s data collection practices and ties to a foreign adversary. For no apparent reason, we have concluded that the challenged provisions did not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights.

In his concurrence, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch lamented the time limits the court had placed on the decision and questioned its effectiveness. “Whether this law will succeed in achieving its objectives, I do not know,” he wrote. “A determined foreign adversary may seek to replace one lost surveillance application with another. As time passes and threats evolve, less dramatic and more effective solutions What will happen next with TikTok remains unclear.”

People have moved on to other apps. Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, another Chinese-based video app has surged in popularity while the court heard the case. Thousands of Americans flocked to the app and there was a cross-pollination of people in China and the US that we had never seen before. Americans are already teaching Chinese users how to make 3D-printed guns. Chinese users teach Americans that their views of China can be distorted.

But what happens in the future or what other apps come up is not the court’s concern. “The question we face today is not the wisdom of the law, but its constitutionality,” Gorsuch said. “Given only a few days after the oral argument to give an opinion, I cannot express the kind of certainty that I would like to have about the arguments and record before us. All I can say is that, at this time and under these constraints, the problem appears to be real and the answer to it is not unconstitutional. Speaking a favor to a foreign enemy is one thing. Allowing a foreign enemy to spy on Americans is another. “

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is scheduled to attend Trump events this week as well as the inauguration. What will happen now is anyone’s guess.