The Supreme Court of the United States is hearing arguments today to decide the fate of TikTok.
Lawmakers believe the app, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, poses a threat to national security. This led a bipartisan group to enact a law last April that ruled TikTok either divest from its parent company or be banned in the U.S. by January 2025. TikTok, for its part, is arguing that the law violates the First Amendment right to free speech.
A quick timeline
The fate of the app, which has roughly 170 million U.S. users, is expected to be decided by the end of next week.
Right now, it’s set to be banned in the U.S. on January 19. The Supreme Court appeared inclined to uphold the law based on their lines of questioning and the concerns expressed.
What TikTok is saying
TikTok’s attorneys are asking the Supreme Court to at least publish a preliminary injunction, which would keep TikTok from having to comply with the law until a later date. The law is set to take effect one day before President Donald Trump, who seems to be sympathetic to TikTok, takes office.
“On Jan. 19, we still have President Biden, and on Jan. 19, as I understand it, we shut down,” TikTok lawyer Noel Francisco said in court. “It is possible that come Jan. 20, Jan. 21, 22nd, we might be in a different world. Again, that’s one of the reasons why that makes perfect sense to issue a preliminary injunction and buy everyone a little breathing space.”
What the government is saying
The government isn’t buying the argument that this is a free speech issue. “All of the same speech that’s happening on TikTok could happen post-divestiture,” Elizabeth Prelogar, the solicitor general, says. “All the act is doing is trying to surgically remove the ability of foreign adversary nation to get our data and to be able to exercise control over the platform.”
What happens if the Supreme Court upholds the ban
If the Supreme Court upholds the ban, TikTok will most likely shut down its U.S. operations on January 19. Trump could decide to not enact the law and provide tech companies with protections to keep operating the app as normal. TikTok could then resume operations.
ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has said a sale isn’t feasible. Still, it’s garnered some interest. Billionaire Frank McCourt and Kevin O’Leary have proposed a deal. Oracle and Walmart might also try to buy TikTok, after their 2020 effort was thwarted by the Biden administration due to security concerns.