When will the TikTok ban start in the US? The Supreme Court upheld the new law

It’s the end of an era TikTok users in the United States as the app will be officially banned later this month.

In a unanimous decision on Friday, January 17, the United States Supreme Court upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Enemies Controlled Apps Act, a law effectively banning the app from the country. CBS News. TikTok will have to be removed from smartphone app stores once the law goes into effect on Sunday, January 19.

Congress passed a law last year that makes it illegal for a provider (like Google or Apple) to “distribute, maintain or update” an app controlled by a foreign adversary (China, Russia, North Korea or Iran). Government officials have been wary of ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent, having access to US citizens’ data for fear of espionage. Meanwhile, ByteDance argued that the ban was a violation of the First Amendment’s free speech protections.

TikTok could remain available if it separates from ByteDance, and the president can grant a 90-day extension if a sale is underway.

With the Supreme Court’s vote to support the law, a whole lot social media starscelebrities and other users will have to leave the platform for good.

“I think everybody loses,” Marc D’Amelio said in ABC News Studios’ “IMPACT x Nightline” special of May 2024. “I think small businesses are losing out. I think the politicians are losing too.”

Marc and his wife, Heidi D’Amelioare parents for social media experts Dixie and Charliewhose online dance went viral in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We didn’t call ourselves. the first TikTok familyMarc, 56, added in an ABC News special. “It’s hard to believe that many people sat and watched the video. I think the ability to turn someone unknown into a celebrity overnight, I don’t think there’s any other platform like that.”

There’s also the possibility that an American owner could buy the app from ByteDance — a Shark tank star Kevin O’Leary has already made an unofficial offer.

“We want to make it clear … that we are buyers,” O’Leary, 70, said Yahoo! Finance on Friday, January 10. “We have a valid syndicate. We are ready to give up to $20 billion and we don’t need an algorithm. We don’t want an algorithm.”

O’Leary formed a consortium with other entrepreneurs, including a billionaire Frank McCourt Jr.to buy the app for $20 billion.

“You would have to assume that for them to know there was an offer, we found a way to get it to them,” he told the paper, referring to ByteDance’s reluctance to accept the offer. “I know all the shareholders. So does Frank. We know who they are. We’ve known this for two years. I know them personally.”