US Supreme Court Upholds 2023 TikTok Ban Amid First Amendment Concerns
In 2023, Congress passed a ban on TikTok to prevent Americans from using the app unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance sold its US subsidiary before January 2025. In January 2025, the US Supreme Court unanimously upheld the ban in a brief and credulous opinion issued about a week after oral arguments.
The ruling deferred to the government's national security justifications, accepting privacy and data concerns without rigorous scrutiny. Privacy experts argued that banning TikTok would not meaningfully curb China’s ability to collect Americans’ data and that less restrictive privacy remedies exist.
Critics raised significant First Amendment and democratic process concerns, noting the decision grants the government power to influence a widely used speech platform. Legislators' stated motives reportedly included suppressing content about Israeli Gaza devastation, suggesting censorship aims behind the law.
Following the ruling, President Trump issued orders suspending enforcement of the ban for 75 days, with the suspension later extended multiple times, allowing TikTok to continue operating. However, concerns remain that the platform could be forced offline by presidential action, potentially resulting in its transfer to ideological allies and threatening free expression.
