


The Supreme Court upheld a law today that could ban the wildly popular social media app TikTok in the U.S. starting on Sunday, unless its Chinese owner agrees to sell it before then. The justices unanimously rejected TikTok’s First Amendment challenge and argued that Congress was entitled to effectively outlaw the app for national security reasons.
The court’s decision may deal a death blow to the U.S. operations of the short-form video platform, where some 170 million Americans get information and entertainment. “We’ve seen the rise and fall of apps in the U.S., but have never seen the disappearance of one like TikTok, essentially overnight,” my colleague Sapna Maheshwari, who covers TikTok, told me. “It’s a massive moment in culture and in technology.”
It is still not at all clear, however, what will happen next.
The app won’t just disappear from your phone. Instead, companies like Apple and Google could be forced to remove TikTok from their app stores, and Oracle, one of its leading server providers, may need to block traffic from the app. They could face significant fines if they do not comply.
“TikTok’s main option is to hope for some sort of a miracle from Trump,” Sapna told me. The Biden administration said it would leave enforcement decisions up to the president-elect, who has repeatedly said he wants the app to remain in the U.S. market.
But with Congress unlikely to quickly overturn the law — which passed by wide bipartisan margins — Trump’s options may be limited. An executive order allowing TikTok to keep operating may not withstand legal scrutiny. Trump could direct the Justice Department not to enforce the law.
If TikTok is banned, the impact will be widespread. Instagram, YouTube and a handful of other apps could fill some of the gaps. But it’s hard to understate how much of a cultural juggernaut TikTok has become. We asked food content creators, as well as publishers and authors who have benefited from “BookTok,” what’s next.