Update | US Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban

January 19, 04:12 PM GMT update: TikTok has been shut down. Users can only download their data from the website. The original article follows below.

The US Supreme Court has decided that the emergency injunction filed earlier by TikTok to stop its ban in America does not violate the First Amendment. Therefore, the ban as detailed in the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which was signed into law in April 2024, will take effect Sunday, January 19, 2025. Approximately 170 million US TikTok users may see service interrupted at that time.

The Act orders TikTok to divest itself of its US operations to an American-friendly buyer, cease all operations in America, or face a half trillion dollar fine. TikTok has been found to illegally transmit data on Americans to China and poses a national security threat since that data is accessible by the Chinese communist government. Canada has already ordered the closure of TikTok's Canadian operations due to security concerns.

TikTok and other social media platforms have also been found harmful to users, who become addicted to doomscrolling many hours of the day away. Australia has passed a law banning those under 16 from accessing social media in response.

Addicted readers who can't stop using their phones round-the-clock can break free by using the guidance in this book on Amazon.