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TikTok ban is upheld and users could lose access starting Sunday.
The US Supreme Court has upheld a law banning TikTok starting on Sunday unless its Chinese parent company sells it.
America’s highest court on Friday morning unanimously sided rejected TikTok’s free speech challenge.
‘There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,’ stated the Supreme Court in an unsigned opinion.
‘But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.’
As of Friday, TikTok’s owner ByteDance has not sold TikTok and a sale did not appear in the works.
The popular app’s fate rests with Donald Trump, who will be sworn in as president a day after the ban, on Monday.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration and sit on the dais.
The Supreme Court’s opinion stated that the law signed by President Joe Biden in April – the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act – ‘does not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights’.
‘Without doubt, the remedy Congress and the President chose here is dramatic,’ wrote Neil Gorsuch, one of two justices who filed separate opinions expressing some reservations but still agreeing with the decision.
But he noted that China could obtain ‘vast troves of personal information about tens of millions of Americans’.
