Supreme Court to Hear TikTok’s Appeal Against Looming U.S. Ban

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a critical appeal from TikTok and its parent company ByteDance over a potential nationwide ban of the app on national security grounds. The case, set for arguments on January 10, comes as TikTok faces a January 19 deadline to divest from ByteDance or risk removal from U.S. app stores under a law driven by concerns over Chinese influence and data access.

The Justice Department has labeled TikTok a “national-security threat,” citing fears that ByteDance could exploit the app’s extensive data collection on American users. TikTok, however, denies any such risk and argues that the ban violates the First Amendment, which protects Americans’ rights to freely access information.

TikTok warned that even a brief ban could result in a significant loss of U.S. users – up to one-third – while damaging its appeal to advertisers and creators. ByteDance and TikTok emphasized in their legal filings that the law represents a dramatic shift from the U.S. tradition of supporting an open internet.

This option to appeal may make a significant difference in whether or not the platform is actually banned. Part of the debate around the entire issue is whether or not the ban would be constitutional, which has given TikTok some leeway to defend itself instead of being banned outright.

While the end result of the entire case won’t be clear until the start of 2025, it’s looking like there may be an increasing chance of TikTok being allowed to remain unbanned. However, if it gets banned anyway, the impact on social media users, advertisers and sub-industries could be a lot larger than many people initially expect.