The Supreme Court has ruled that a law that could expel TikTok from the United States applies to the company unless it is sold by Chinese parent company ByteDance and is constitutional.

“There is no question that for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok provides a unique and widespread outlet for expression, participation, and community,” the court wrote in a per curiam ruling that did not attribute any specific reason. justice. “But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its national security concerns about TikTok’s data collection practices and relationships with foreign adversaries, and that concern is well supported.”

The ruling means TikTok is still expected to be banned in the United States on January 19 unless President Joe Biden extends the deadline or ByteDance sells the company in time. The Biden administration now appears ready to delay enforcement and leave it to the next administration after Trump is sworn in on Monday — though even that pledge may not be enough to overcome what service providers like Apple, Google and Oracle may face. The risks if they choose not to comply with the law and continue to provide services to TikTok after the ban technically takes effect.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he will try to save the app, though it's unclear how and he won't be sworn in until the day after the sales deadline. Not only will the app disappear from users' phones, but TikTok reportedly plans to go beyond legal requirements and shut down if the ban is upheld.

The judges warned that their ruling should be "construed as narrowly focused" given that the case involved "new technology with the power to transform". They stressed that while data collection by companies is common, "TikTok's scale and susceptibility to control by foreign adversaries, combined with the vast amounts of sensitive data collected by the platform, justify differential treatment to address the government's national security concerns." The law against any other speaker necessarily requires unique investigation and separate consideration. "

The justices found that the law that applies to TikTok is "content neutral" and "based on content neutrality grounds," citing government concerns that China could collect large amounts of Americans' data through the app. They found that the law was not required to satisfy the highest form of First Amendment censorship and that, as applied to TikTok, it did satisfy intermediate censorship because the law promoted "important governmental interests unrelated to the suppression of free speech" and did not Don’t overburden yourself with words to achieve this goal.

The case pits free speech and national security concerns against each other. The justices heard oral arguments in the case on Friday, with lawyers for TikTok and a group of creators on the platform describing why they believe the law violates the First Amendment. The U.S. government defended the law, which was overwhelmingly passed by Congress and signed by Biden, as important to national security.

This story is developing.