ByteDance: Last News

After years on the brink, TikTok’s clock has run out as the U.S. Supreme Court today upheld a lower court ruling that the app owned by China’s ByteDance must sell itself or be banned in the U.S. on Jan. 19 due to national security concerns.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor TikTok could fade to black in the U.S. in a matter of days after the Supreme Court rejected its appeal to halt a law that will ban the popular video app as of Jan. 19 unless Chinese parent ByteDance sells its stake.

It’s looking more likely that you won’t have to worry about saying goodbye to TikTok this weekend as Joe Biden‘s administration does not plan on enforcing a ban.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor President Biden, on the eve of leaving office, is punting the issue of the U.S. government’s enforcement of the law requiring TikTok‘s Chinese parent to sell its stake in the app or face a nationwide ban to President-elect Donald Trump. TikTok is at risk of being effectively banned in the U.S.

Could TikTok have found a new owner days before it’s set to go offline in the United States?

With no Supreme Court ruling on TikTok today, tensions are high. The wildly popular social media platform owned by China’s ByteDance could shut down in the U.S. on Jan. 19 – just four days from now — or sell itself to an entity Stateside if the Justices do not rule otherwise.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor TikTok is preparing to go dark for U.S. users this Sunday if the Supreme Court does not grant its emergency appeal to halt a law that will ban the app unless Chinese parent ByteDance divests its stake, according to reports. TikTok is in danger of being banned in the U.S.

The ban on TikTok is getting closer.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor TikTok could be outlawed in the U.S. as soon as Jan. 19 over concerns about its Chinese ownership, unless it gets a reprieve from the Supreme Court or if Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, complies with a federal law forcing it to sell its stake in the app.

American people: 1, American government: 0.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor TikTok denied a report that China is looking at potentially facilitating a sale of the app to tech billionaire Elon Musk to keep TikTok operational in America amid a looming U.S. government ban. On Monday, Bloomberg reported that “Chinese officials are evaluating a potential option that involves Elon Musk acquiring the US operations of TikTok” if an American law goes into effect that would require parent company ByteDance to divest its TikTok stake or effectively ban the app in the U.S.

Justices on the Supreme Court indicated during oral arguments held on Friday that they were leaning toward signing off on legislation that would lead to a ban of TikTok unless it is sold by its present owners, Forbes reports. In May 2024, President Biden signed a law requiring ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns and operates TikTok, to sell the company before January 19, 2025, or effectively get shut down.

TikTok has announced plans to cease operations in the US on January 19 unless the Supreme Court blocks or delays its ban – find out more below.Per a report from Associated Press, TikTok has confirmed that it intends to shut down its app in the United States on January 19. This, however, would be a last resort if the Supreme Court decides to enforce laws that will force the Chinese-owned platform to sell to a third party and break ties with parent company ByteDance.

TikTok announced plans to shut down the app in the United States as it petitions the Supreme Court to overturn a ban approved by the government.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Ahead of the Supreme Court‘s Jan. 10 hearing on whether to grant TikTok an emergency injunction to prevent it from being banned by the U.S. government, several groups and members of Congress have weighed in on the issue — both against the law, arguing it violates First Amendment rights of TikTok’s users, and in support of the ban because of national security concerns over its Chinese parent company.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor TikTok filed an appeal with the Supreme Court seeking an emergency injunction to block a U.S. law from going into effect that would impose a nationwide ban on the popular app unless Chinese parent ByteDance sells its stake in TikTok. In a statement Monday, TikTok said, “The Supreme Court has an established record of upholding Americans’ right to free speech.

TikTok is one step closer to being banned in the United States.

Associated Press, a US federal appeals court panel on Friday (December 6) decided unanimously that it would uphold a law that sees the ban of TikTok in the country – as soon as next month.The law requires TikTok to be sold off by, and break ties with, the China-based ByteDance – or be banned by mid-January. Legal representatives of the social media app argued that the ban infringes upon the country’s First Amendment.However, this was rebuffed by the court: “The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” said the court’s opinion, per a written statement by Judge Douglas Ginsburg.“Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”TikTok is set to appeal the ban to the Supreme Court at an undisclosed future date, with its spokesperson Michael Hughes saying in a statement: “The TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people”.The sell-or-ban measure was issued into law by US President Joe Biden earlier this year (April 24), following a long-running dispute over claims that the company’s ownership structure could allow the Chinese government to gain access to the data of its millions of American users.To date, over 30 American states, Canada, and the European Union have separately banned the app from use on government-owned devices over concerns it could be a security risk.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The fight over whether TikTok remains legal in the U.S. could be heading to the Supreme Court. On Friday, the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C.

After President Joe Biden signed legislation earlier this year that requires TikTok parent ByteDance to divest the app or face a ban on U.S. app stores, Canada has taken action to eliminate the company’s physical footprint there.

Michaela Zee The Canadian government has ordered TikTok to shutter its operations in the country, citing national security risks. Users in Canada, however, will still have access to the app. “The government is taking action to address the specific national security risks related to ByteDance Ltd’s operations in Canada through the establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc,” Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said in a statement on Wednesday (via Reuters).