Will TikTok be banned? Here are the latest details on the app's legal fight to stay in the US and Trump's options

• TikTok could be pulled from US app stores and go dark as early as January 19.
• The Supreme Court upheld a law that requires its owner to divest in the US or effectively shut down.
• Business Insider is tracking TikTok's battle for survival as its US divestment deadline nears.

TikTok could soon be gone from the US.

Its app is likely to get pulled from app stores and may "go dark" on January 19 if it fails to meet a deadline for its owner to separate from its US assets, as dictated by a divest-or-ban law.

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the law was constitutional and did not violate the First Amendment rights of TikTok or its creators. TikTok had asked the court to reverse an early December DC Circuit decision that upheld the law.

There's no doubt that TikTok "offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression," the court wrote in its decision, "but 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."

The Supreme Court's decision was largely expected. Legal analysts told Business Insider ahead of the ruling that the court would likely defer to Congress' authority on national security concerns.

TikTok is under threat because of an April law, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, that set a roughly nine-month deadline for TikTok's owner, ByteDance, to divest from the app or stop operating in the US.

While there is bipartisan support in Congress for a TikTok ban, support for a ban is fading among the American public. In a Pew Research Center survey of US adults from July and August, about one in three respondents (32%) supported a government ban, down from 50% in March 2023.

Will Trump save TikTok?

While TikTok has lost its legal battles against the divest-or-ban law, the company may have another path to survival.

Trump has said he would try to save TikTok once in office, a flip-flop from his position during his first presidential term. He met with TikTok's CEO Shou Chew on December 16, and said during a press conference that day that he had "a warm spot in my heart for TikTok."

On December 27, he filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, asking it to pause the deadline for a TikTok divestment so he can try to negotiate a resolution.

"President Trump opposes banning TikTok in the United States at this juncture, and seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office," the brief says.

Trump wrote in a social media post after the Supreme Court ruling that he would make a decision on the app soon after reviewing the situation. Following the release of the Supreme Court opinion, TikTok's CEO Shou Chew thanked the president-elect for the "opportunity to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States."

Legal experts previously told BI that Trump could try a few tactics to keep TikTok around, including telling his Justice Department not to enforce the divest-or-ban law or attempting to skirt it through strategic interpretations of its text. Both strategies would be tough to pull off, however.

"Because the law was enacted by Congress, I'm not sure how much wiggle room a future Trump administration would have to ignore it," G.S. Hans, a clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School, previously told BI.

Read more about the obstacles facing Trump if he decides to try to rescue TikTok.

Trump could also try to broker a sale of TikTok's US assets to a non-Chinese company, a remedy prescribed in the divest-or-ban law. ByteDance has previously said it wouldn't sell TikTok, but it could be the simplest option for keeping the app around in the US.

A TikTok sale seems to be the preferred path forward among some members of Congress. Rep. John Moolenaar, the chair of the House's Committee on China, told BI in a statement that the Trump administration would "have a unique opportunity to broker an American takeover of the platform, allowing TikTok users to continue to enjoy a safer, better version of the app free from foreign adversary control."

The Chinese government may block ByteDance from selling TikTok's US assets, and a TikTok sale could become a bargaining chip in larger US-China trade negotiations.

Why TikTok is a main character in the US-China trade wars

Government officials have been worried about TikTok's growing influence in the US for years.

Its owner, ByteDance, is based in China, a country the US has deemed a foreign adversary. This has sparked fears among some officials that the company could be compelled to hand over sensitive US user data from TikTok to the Chinese Communist Party. Some members of Congress have raised concerns that TikTok could be used as a CCP propaganda tool.

TikTok has previously said that it does not share information with the Chinese government and that its content-moderation efforts are run by a US-based team that "operates independently from China."

Other companies may also become targets of the divest-or-ban law

TikTok may not be the only company under threat.

ByteDance owns several other apps, such as its video-editing tool, CapCut, and Pinterest-like app, Lemon8, that are also subject to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. A Chinese social app called Xiaohongshu, commonly referred to as RedNote, may also be subject to the law if Trump chooses to enforce it against the app, Moolenaar told BI.

The bill's text specifically names TikTok and ByteDance as covered companies. But its language is fairly broad and could affect any company that is owned by a foreign adversary and permits a user to "create an account or profile to generate, share, and view text, images, videos, real-time communications, or similar content" (i.e., social media).

The bill's framework excludes platforms where users "post product reviews, business reviews, or travel information and reviews," however, which suggests that the Chinese e-commerce platforms Shein and Temu would remain safe.