It is the end of an era for TikTok users in the United States, as the app will officially be banned later this month.
The Supreme Court of the United States voted in a unanimous decision on Friday, January 17, to uphold the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, a law effectively banning the app in the country, per CBS News. TikTok will need to be removed from smartphone app stores when the law goes into effect on Sunday, January 19.
Congress passed the law last year, which makes it unlawful for providers (like Google or Apple) to “distribute, maintain or update” an app controlled by a foreign adversary (China, Russia, North Korea or Iran). Government officials were wary about ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, having access to U.S. citizens’ data out of fear of espionage. ByteDance, meanwhile, claimed the ban was a violation of First Amendment protections regarding free speech.
TikTok could remain available if it separates from ByteDance, and a 90-day extension can be granted by the president if a sale is underway. ByteDance, meanwhile, has asserted that it has no plans to sell off the app and will cut off services and “go dark” unless the U.S. assures Apple and Google that they won’t be penalized for hosting and distributing TikTok.
With the Supreme Court voting to uphold the law, a whole slate of social media stars, celebrities and other users will have to leave the platform for good.
“I think everyone loses,” Marc D’Amelio said in ABC News Studios’ “IMPACT x Nightline” special from May 2024. “I think small business loses. I think the politicians lose also.”
Marc and his wife, Heidi D’Amelio, are the parents to social media mavens Dixie and Charli, whose online dances went viral in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We didn’t call ourselves the first family of TikTok,” Marc, 56, added in the ABC News special. “It’s hard to believe that many people sat and watched a video. I think the ability to turn someone who’s obscure into an overnight, famous person, I don’t think there’s any other platform like that.”
There is also the possibility that an American owner could buy the app from ByteDance — and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary has already put in an unofficial offer.
“We want to make it clear … that we are a buyer,” O’Leary, 70, told Yahoo! Finance on Friday, January 10. “We’ve got a valid syndicate. We’re prepared to put up as much as $20 billion, and we don’t need the algorithm. We don’t want the algorithm.”
O’Leary formed a consortium with other entrepreneurs, including billionaire Frank McCourt Jr., to purchase the app for $20 billion.
“You should make the assumption that in order for them to know there was an offer, we found a way to get it to them,” he told the outlet, referring to ByteDance’s hesitance to accept the offer. “I know all the shareholders. So does Frank. We know who they are. We’ve known that for two years. I know them personally.”
