TikTok could be switched off for millions of Americans if the Supreme Court rules on a US ban

The day before President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office again, the controversial social media platform TikTok could be banned.

American ‘tradition’ looks likely to ensure TikTok is shut down in the US the day before President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office for the second time, after the latest pleas to save the controversial social media platform fell on deaf ears.

TikTok’s free-speech defence against its imminent ban in the US was met with much scepticism in the capital Washington DC on Friday, local time.

The Supreme Court justices indicated they are unlikely to strike down the law to shut down the China-owned platform (which is set to come into effect January 19) in saying its banning was not an effort to restrict the First Amendment and that Congress was concerned over its threat to national security.

“Congress doesn’t care about what’s on TikTok,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr said aligning the thoughts of both conservative and liberal justices.

“Congress is not fine with a foreign adversary gathering all this data on 170 million Americans. Are we supposed to ignore the fact that its parent company is subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?”

US President-elect Donald Trump filed a brief on December 27, 2024 urging the Supreme Court to pause a law that would ban TikTok the day before his January 20 inauguration if it is not sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance.

Roberts Jr said he didn’t know of any precedent that would call for striking down the ban on free speech grounds.

Justice Elena Kagan appeared to agree.

“This law is targeted at a foreign corporation that doesn’t have First Amendment rights,” she said.

Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh added: “There is a long tradition of preventing foreign ownership or control of media in the United States.”

Those stances came in response to TikTok’s lawyers claiming the proposed ban will be an attack upon the First Amendment.

Supporters of Tiktok livestream in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC. Picture: AFP

“Shuttering the platform will silence the speech of 170 million monthly American users,” they said.

However US lawmakers and The White House say the platform provides Beijing with “vast swathes of data about tens of millions of Americans,” it “could use for espionage or blackmail.”

The appeal on the ban has been fast-tracked and a ruling is likely next week.

If the ban is upheld tech giants such as Google and Apple would not be permitted to allow access to, or distribute or maintain the TikTok app with the risk of punishment of massive fines if they do.

Trump may be able to save the platform in the US after he again indicated he would be open to TikTok being available in America if it was separated from Chinese ownership. The Biden Administration have been unable to work out such a deal.

It is unclear what effect the US ban would have on access to TikTok in Australia. However many experts has surmised that if TikTok is banned in the US on national security grounds, other western democracies are likely to follow suit.