The US Supreme Court docket has upheld a legislation that bans TikTok nationwide except its China-based father or mother firm ByteDance sells the platform by this Sunday.
TikTok had challenged the legislation, arguing it will violate free speech protections for the app’s greater than 170 million customers it says it has within the US.
However that argument was rejected by the nation’s highest courtroom, which means TikTok should now discover an accredited purchaser for the US model of the app or face being faraway from app shops and hosting companies.
Nevertheless, the outgoing Biden administration and incoming President Donald Trump have been making an attempt to work out a reprieve for the platform, which US authorities have warned poses a nationwide safety danger.
Each Democrat and Republican lawmakers voted to ban the video-sharing app final yr, over issues about its hyperlinks to the Chinese language authorities. TikTok has repeatedly said it doesn’t share data with Beijing.
The legislation provides TikTok’s proprietor, ByteDance, till 19 January to promote the US model of the platform to a impartial get together to avert an outright ban.
It will imply that from Sunday Apple and Google will now not supply the app to new customers or present any safety updates to present customers – which may kill it off ultimately.
The corporate has vowed to not promote TikTok.