Supreme Court upholds law that could ban TikTok in the U.S., leaving the matter to Trump

WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law that would effectively ban TikTok in the United States on Sunday, siding with the government's national security concerns over the First Amendment rights of the company and its 170 million TikTok users.

That decision shifts the focus to whether President-elect Donald Trump can intervene after he takes office on Monday.

Trump, who tried to ban TikTok during his first administration, has since promised to “save” the wildly popular platform, though it's unclear how he could do so.

Minutes before the court released its decision, Trump said on social media he’d just spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping about TikTok and other issues.

“It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately,” Trump posted.

The company has said that even a temporary ban on the short-term video app would have “devastating” effects on TikTok’s ability to attract users and content creators. About 170 million Americans − and more than 1 billion people worldwide − use TikTok, according to the company.

The court's decision came a week after the justices heard more than two hours of debate on Jan. 10 on whether the government can require the short-form video app to divest from its parent company, China-based ByteDance.

TikTok called that a "massive, unprecedented restriction" on free speech.

"One of America's most popular speech platforms will shut down in nine days," Noel Francisco, an attorney for TikTok who served as solicitor general during Trump's first administration, told the justices on Jan. 10. "That shouldn't happen."

Related: Can Trump save TikTok? The ‘Art of the Deal’ President wants to try

The Justice Department said the restriction is not on speech but on a foreign adversary's ability to control a widely used means of communication. Unless TikTok is sold, the government said, China can gather data on Americans or manipulate the content on TikTok to shape U.S. opinion.

"The Chinese government's control of TikTok poses a grave threat to national security," Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the court.

She said before stepping in Trump should review all the updated national security information since he was last in office.

The "Art of the Deal" president-elect had urged the Supreme Court to pause the ban to give him time to "negotiate a resolution."

Once in office, Trump could direct his attorney general not to enforce the law. But it's uncertain if Apple, Google and other conduits for the app will feel that’s enough protection from the law’s stiff penalties.

Pam Bondi, Trump's choice for attorney general, declined during her confirmation hearing Wednesday to commit to enforcing the law.

Bondi said she would "in general" defend U.S. laws against constitutional attacks, but said she couldn't make that specific pledge about the TikTok ban.

Trump could try to take advantage of ambiguity in the law as to whether the president can declare that TikTok is no longer controlled by a Chinese entity.  

And there are questions about whether Trump can extend the deadline for TikTok to be divested from ByteDance.

Asked about that during the Supreme Court's debate, Prelogar called it a "statutory interpretation question."

She also said TikTok may have been playing a game of chicken with the U.S. and would find a way to divest once it was clear whether the deadline would hold.

Francisco, TikTok's attorney, told the court the platform would "go dark" on Sunday unless the law was blocked.

“Essentially the platform shuts down," he said.

But the law doesn't require TikTok to act. The penalties fall on the app stores and companies such as Oracle that host TikTok's content in the U.S. Changes by those companies would make the platform harder to use over time but wouldn't necessarily stop its immediate use for people who already have the app.

Trump's change of heart on TikTok may, in part, be related to the app's use in connecting him to young voters. His account had 14.8 million followers as of last week.

Trump also had good things to say about TikTok after he met last year with billionaire Jeff Yass, a major conservative donor with financial ties to ByteDance.

Trump also invited TikTok's chief executive to attend his inauguration.