By Sauntharya Manikandan, J.D. Candidate, 2026
Overview
On January 17, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act also known as the TikTok Sale-or-Ban Law. This law grants the federal government the authority to shut down TikTok unless ByteDance, its China-based parent company, completes a qualified divestiture—essentially severing all control over TikTok’s U.S. operations and having the application cut ties with any entities designated as foreign adversaries. The ban was slated to into effect on January 19, 2025. However, due to the timing of the ruling coinciding with a presidential transition, recent updates have indicated that TikTok remains accessible for the time being.
Events Leading up to the Supreme Court Ruling
TikTok was created when ByteDance merged its successful Chinese app, Douyin, with the U.S.-based Musical.ly in 2018. The app quickly expanded globally and reached over 102.3 million users in the U.S alone as of 2023.
The popularity of TikTok comes from its For You page, which uses a recommendation algorithm to curate content. However the features that make the For You page so captivating are also at the heart of the concerns surrounding the app. Critics cite the extensive amount of data TikTok collects from users as problematic even though they have been comparable to other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Just a year after its launch, the U.S. government initiated a national security review of TikTok, sparking investigations and partial bans. The following year, former President Trump issued executive orders for ByteDance to divest its holdings in TikTok. TikTok challenged the order’s constitutionality, but the D.C. Circuit paused the case in 2021 to allow for negotiations that ultimately fell through. In 2022, leaks revealed that ByteDance employees had accessed private TikTok user data, intensifying congressional scrutiny.
This culminated in 2024 with President Biden signing the bipartisan TikTok Sale-or-Ban Law. allowing the federal government to ban apps under the control of “foreign adversaries” and specifically finds that applications operated by Tik Tok and Byte Dance fall under this definition. This law also prohibits U.S companies from supporting these types of applications.
Supreme Court Ruling
Petitioners in this case, two TikTok entities and a group of U.S. TikTok users, challenged the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary-Controlled Applications Act. The Court started by recognizing both the need for caution when applying legal principles to new technologies and noted that the expedited timeline of the case requires the opinion to be understood narrowly. Key issues addressed by the court were the application of the First Amendment and data collection concerns:
First, the Court presumed that the First Amendment was implicated. However the Court did not decide on the question that the Act targeted foreign adversaries, unlike regulations that are typically subject to First Amendment review.
Second, the Court determined this Act was facially content-neutral under First Amendment review. The Court rejected strict scrutiny and applied intermediate scrutiny as: (1) The Act served an important Government interest of national security in preventing collection of sensitive data from U.S. users and (2) was tailored to address data collection concerns by only imposing a conditional ban. The Court highlighted that these concerns over data collection are not solely due to TikTok but are part of a broader context where China has been engaged in extensive efforts to gather data on U.S. individuals.
The Court ended by affirming that the Government’s justification was sufficient and that the Act did not violate the First Amendment. Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Neil Gorsuch were the only two justices to offer concurrences. Sotomayor concurred in part, but argued that strict, rather than intermediate scrutiny should apply. Gorsuch concurred only in judgement and was the only justice to directly address how this ban would affect free speech. Judge Gorsuch argued that the ability to make choices about content is protected under the First Amendment, particularly editorial discretion.
Post Ban
While the ban on TikTok was upheld, the Biden administration left its enforcement to the incoming Trump administration. On January 18, Tik Tok officially went offline in the U.S, disappearing from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. However, this blackout lasted only 14 hours. On January 19, Trump announced on Truth Social his intent to pause the ban. Following his statement, TikTok sent a notification to all users with the following message “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” Web support companies reinstated access to the TikTok website, but Apple and Google have not allowed TikTok back on their platforms. As a result, users who already have the app installed can still access it, but new users must go through the TikTok website.
On January 20, Trump officially signed an executive order halting the Tik Tok ban for 75 days and protecting companies that work with TikTok from being held liable. Five days after the executive order, exclusive news came out that the White House in negotiations for a deal with US investors and companies like Oracle to take control of the app. Such a deal would have ByteDance be reduced to a minority owner in the company while all data and algorithm related updates taken over by a US company.
While the future of this app remains uncertain, it has made history: from being the first social media app to be banned by the U.S to becoming a turning point in debates over digital privacy, free speech, and foreign influence in technology. This historic moment serves as a reminder that technology is not just a tool for connection and creativity but also a domain of power and influence, with far-reaching implications for society.