The United States Supreme Court ruled to uphold a federal law that bans TikTok starting Sunday unless it is sold by its China-based parent company.
The court argued that the national security risk posed by the links to China outweighs concerns about the app or its 170 million users in the United States restricting freedom of expression, the AP reports.
The sale doesn't appear imminent, and while experts have said the app won't disappear from existing users' phones once the law goes into effect on Jan. 19, new users won't be able to download it or update it. That would eventually render the app unusable, the Justice Department said in court documents.
President-elect Donald Trump promised that he could negotiate a solution, while President Joe Biden's administration has signaled that it will not enforce the law starting Sunday, his last full day in office.
Trump, aware of TikTok's popularity and his 14.7 million followers on the app, finds himself on the opposite side of the argument from prominent Senate Republicans, who blame TikTok's Chinese owner for failing to find a buyer so far.
The dispute over TikTok's ties to China has taken on the form of geopolitical competition between Washington and Beijing. Meanwhile, TikTok emphasizes that the US has not presented evidence that China has attempted to manipulate content on its US platform or collect data of American users through TikTok. (A2 Televizion)
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