US Supreme Court Rules Against TikTok, Upholds Ban

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against TikTok on Friday in its challenge to a federal law that would have required the popular short-video app to be sold by its Chinese parent company ByteDance or banned in the United States on Jan. 19.

The justices ruled that the law, passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress last year and signed by Democratic President Joe Biden, did not violate the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech. The justices overturned a lower court's decision that had upheld the measure after it was challenged by TikTok, ByteDance and some of the app's users.

The Supreme Court acted speedily in the case, having held arguments on Jan. 10, just nine days before the deadline set under the law. The case pitted free speech rights against national security concerns in the age of social media.