The Supreme Court upheld a law that threatens to shut down the wildly popular TikTok social media platform in the US as soon as Sunday, ruling that free speech rights must yield to concerns that Chinese control of the app creates a national security risk.
In a unanimous vote, the high court said Friday that Congress acted constitutionally when it required ByteDance Ltd. to sell the video-sharing app by Jan 19 or face a ban.
The decision opens an uncertain chapter for TikTok and its 170 million US users. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to save TikTok and could choose to suspend enforcement of the new law once he takes office on Monday.
But the impact of that move would depend on the response of the tech companies that host and distribute TikTok, including Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. Under the law, those companies would face the prospect of massive fines for continuing to support TikTok, and they would have to decide whether assurances from the Trump administration provide sufficient legal cover.
