Supreme Court Says ‘Fuck the Kids’, Will Let Feds Ban TikTok

US Supreme Court will allow The federal government will ban TikTok unless the popular video-sharing app finds someone to sell it to.

Incoming President Trump asked the Supreme Court to delay the implementation of the law. It was rejected, and there is no obvious buyer for the lined-up TikTok. If nothing changes, the ban will begin on Sunday, the day before Trump’s inauguration. Biden said he would not implement the ban and It will allow Trump to solve the problem.

How did we get here? TikTok is owned by China-based company ByteDance, and lawmakers have successfully proven over the past few years that it fed large amounts of American data to servers owned by the Chinese Communist Party. In 2024, a bipartisan bill was passed that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok or be banned from US shores.

ByteDance fought the decision all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing that the sale violated the First Amendment Rights of millions of Americans. It was an argument that the Supreme Court found unpersuasive.

“There is no doubt that for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a different and broader opportunity for expression, a means of communication, and a source of community,” the ruling said. “But Congress determined that the waiver was necessary to address well-supported national security concerns about TikTok’s data collection practices and ties to a foreign adversary. For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights.”

Meanwhile, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch complained about the court’s time limit on the decision and questioned its ultimate effectiveness. “I don’t know if this law will achieve its goals,” he wrote. “A determined foreign adversary could replace one lost surveillance application with another. As time passes and threats evolve, less dramatic and more effective solutions may emerge. Even what might happen next to TikTok remains unclear.”

People have already switched to other programs. Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, is another Chinese-based video app increased its popularity while the court is hearing the case. Thousands of Americans flocked to the app, and there was a cross-pollination of people between China and the US that we hadn’t seen before. Americans are already teaching Chinese users How to build 3D printed weapons. Chinese users teach Americans that their view of China can be skewed.

But the court is not interested in what will happen in the future or the emergence of other programs. “The question before us today is not the wisdom of the law, but only its constitutionality,” Gorsuch said. “I can’t express how much I want to be sure about the arguments and the record before us a few days after the oral argument for the opinion. All I can say is that at this time and under these constraints the problem seems real and the answer to it is not unconstitutional. It’s one thing to talk to a foreign enemy and speak for him. It’s another thing to allow a foreign enemy to spy on Americans.”

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is scheduled to attend Trump events this weekend, as well as the inauguration. What will happen now is anyone’s guess.