U.S. officials have long feared that the widely popular short-form video app could be used as a vehicle for espionage.

Via CNN - Sen. Josh Hawley, who has been a harsh critic of TikTok, praised the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the law banning TikTok from US app stores.

U.S. users of TikTok briefly lost access to the platform Saturday evening ahead of the Jan. 19 deadline. This came after the Supreme Court ruled Friday that Congress’ TikTok ban is constitutional, despite widespread First Amendment concerns.

In what’s being called a “landmark ruling,” the US Supreme Court cleared the way for a controversial TikTok ban to take effect this weekend. “Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary,

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley — who said he believes the Supreme Court ruled correctly “on the law” with TikTok — said the problem right now

Conservative Republicans have been hyperfixated on TikTok content that’s sympathetic with Gaza — and accused the company of algorithmic bias against Israel.

The United States Supreme Court upheld a law on Friday that will force TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app or face a ban. However, the future of the platform is still unclear. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) praised the court's decision,

NBC News received comments from Sens. Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Richard Blumenthal about the Supreme Court's ruling that the ban on Chinese-owned social media app TikTok can move forward this weekend.

Last year, the Biden Administration signed a law that the Chinese company ByteDance, who owns the social media platform TikTok, needs to sell the company in a few weeks. Nyaradzo "Naya" Bere, a Colorado TikTok influencer,

TikTok went offline in the United States Saturday night, less than two hours before a ban was slated to go into effect.

Multiple people on social media, including conservative media personality Candace Owens, have claimed that Israeli lobbying groups have pushed the U.S. to ban TikTok because of the high number of pro-Palestine content being created and shared on the app.