Pope Francis slammed Trump’s planned mass deportation plan as 'a disgrace' while promoting his memoir on TV, and also made his TikTok debut.
The Supreme Court upheld a law that would effectively ban TikTok in the United States. Here's what to know about the potential ban.
Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a new law that would lead to a ban of the social media platform TikTok, clearing the way for the widely popular app to shutter in the U.S. as soon as Sunday.
The United States Supreme Court is poised to announce a critical decision on Friday that could determine the future of TikTok in the country. The app, immensely popular among Americans, faces a potential ban due to concerns over national security and data privacy.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew thanked Donald Trump for his commitment to "finding a solution" that keeps TikTok available in the U.S. after the ruling.
The ban will go into effect on Jan. 19 unless TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance sells its U.S. operations to an American entity.
In an unanimous ruling handed down on Friday morning, January 17 in TikTok v. Merrick B. Garland, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a TikTok ban that is scheduled to go into effect on Sunday, January 19 unless ByteDance — the video sharing platform's owner in Mainland China — divests itself.
Starting Sunday, if the company is not sold, app stores and cloud providers who continue to host it will face billions of dollars in fines.
TikTok, ByteDance and several users of the app sued to halt the ban, arguing it would suppress free speech for the millions of Americans who use the platform.
Lawyers for TikTok and the US government both pleaded their cases in oral arguments before the court on Friday, with TikTok charging that a ban would infringe on the First Amendme
A law signed by President Joe Biden in April requires TikTok to divest from its Chinese ownership and sell to a U.S. company or it will be shut down. If the Supreme Court declares the law unconstitutional before then, TikTok can continue to exist as it is today.
The U.S. Supreme Court is viewed as open to upholding a national-security law that will shut down the video-sharing app nationwide on Sunday if it continues to be controlled by its Chinese parent company.