Phil McCausland
Reporting from New York

The US Supreme Court's decision to uphold a law that could ban TikTok in America has disappointed millions of users across the country - many of whom earn money through its use.

But lawmakers argued the social media app's links to China posed a national security threat.

TikTok challenged the legislation in court, arguing it would violate free speech protections for the more than 170 million users it says it has in the US.

The nation's highest court rejected this claim unanimously, meaning TikTok must now find an approved buyer for the US version of the app or face removal from app stores and web hosting services.

One TikTok user told BBC News that the ruling was like "going to work and your office building's just vanished".

While the ban is legally slated to begin Sunday, the Biden administration said it would leave the enforcement of the matter to the incoming president, Donald Trump, who takes office on Monday.

Trump, who pushed for a sale or ban of TikTok in 2020, has vowed to make a decision regarding the platfrom in the "not too distant future". Since his election win, he has indicated that he would like to preserve the shortfrom video app's presence in the US - which has seemingly left TikTok's future openended.

Thanks for joining us for the BBC's live coverage. If you want to learn more about the story, check out these links:

• TikTok ban will be first test for Trump
• TikTok influencers on ban: 'We feel left out and powerless'
• TikTok ban upheld by US Supreme Court: What happens now?

Kerry Allen
Chinese Media Analyst

Image source, Getty Images

TikTok has been in this position before: In August 2020, then-President Trump signed an executive order directing ByteDance to sell off the firm within 90 days, or face a ban.

At the time, ByteDance’s founder Zhang Yiming came under heavy fire in China for signalling that he might divest the US operations of TikTok by agreeing a deal with US tech firm Oracle.

Users of the popular Chinese social network Weibo nicknamed him “Zhang the Kneeler”, perceiving that he had shown weakness and not had the courage to stand up to the US.

He stepped down as chief executive of the firm in May 2021 and there were perceptions that he had never recovered favour domestically after being faced with this challenge.

So this time, there is confidence in China that TikTok won’t sell in a last-minute deal.

Grace Dean
BBC News

Image source, Ross Smith

Ross Smith, 32, from Ohio, runs the account @rosssmith, where he makes comedy videos with his 98-year-old granny.

Speaking to the BBC about a potential ban, Ross said: "Imagine going to work and your office building's just vanished."

He said that a “lot of people” had made careers through TikTok, including the people he employed to manage his channel. He said that TikTok had been a "very lucrative" platform because of brand deals and the app's shop.

On TikTok, newbies to content creation can sometimes "find success overnight", he said.

Ross also praised TikTok’s “for you page”, the platform’s personalised homepage that recommends content based on what users have previously engaged with.

"They changed the algorithm game,” he said. “They rarely got it wrong."

After experiencing the downfall of video-sharing app Vine in 2017, Ross said he learnt not to “put all your eggs in one basket" - or all your comedy skits on one platform - because "it could be gone overnight".

If TikTok goes, he’ll continue posting on other platforms – but none of them are as good for sharing scrollable short-format videos as TikTok, he said.

Joe Tidy
Cyber correspondent

Since President Trump started raising concerns about TikTok in 2019, fear has rippled around the world about the fast growing and hugely popular app.

It’s been banned on devices of government employees, civil servants or military personnel in many countries including the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, The Netherlands, Norway, Taiwan.

The Czech cyber security watchdog even went as far as to warn members of the public against using TikTok.

There have been other public sector decisions too like when Denmark’s public broadcaster banned employees from having TikTok on work phones. The BBC also put out a similar warning to staff but it was never enforced.

Other countries have banned it based on morality or child protection reasons like India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

These bans are unlikely to be affected as they are political and cultural decisions. But the US Supreme Court ruling further underlines the security concerns about the app and could see other countries ramp up restrictions.

Or – what seems more likely – is that incoming President Trump will save TikTok and those same security fears may fizzle away elsewhere too. Much is at stake with a swipe of Trump’s pen.

Kerry Allen
Chinese Media Analyst

There have been reports this week that Americans have been migrating over to another Chinese app unofficially known as RedNote, if the ban goes ahead.

RedNote is often thought of as China’s answer to Instagram. It’s a picture and video sharing app called Xiaohongshu (meaning “little red book”) which has been around since 2013.

Media have observed that it has not only topped the charts as being the most downloaded free-to-use app this week in the US, but also the UK, Canada, Ireland and Italy.

It could therefore see a surge of popularity; however, given China’s tight state media controls, and much stricter domestic regulatory requirements, the longevity of Chinese and foreign audiences being able to communicate freely on the platform is doubtful.

Western social media apps like Facebook, X and Instagram are blocked in China, as is TikTok.

Instead, Chinese audiences use a mirrored service called Douyin. It has the same functionalities as TikTok, but it means Chinese users can only speak among themselves, and foreign audiences with other foreign users.

Image source, Getty Images

You may be wondering when the discussion around banning TikTok in the US started, and how it arrived at the Supreme Court's decision today. Here is a quick timeline of the events that got us here:

• August 2020: Donald Trump, who was at the end of his first presidency, spearheads an initial efforts to ban TikTok with an executive order, citing national security concerns. He pushes for it to be acquired by Microsoft but that falls through. After mounting pressure, software giant Oracle steps in and teams up with TikTok to protect US data
• March 2023: Still concerned with China's influence on TikTok, Congress calls the company's CEO Shou Zi to testify in defence of the app. Still, lawmakers came out in support of a full ban
• April 2024: Biden signs a bill, which was passed by the House and the Senate, that forces TikTok's Chinese parent company to divest from its US operations or face a ban of the app
• May 2024: TikTok and ByteDance sue the US over the bill, saying it is unconstitutional
• December 2024: A federal appeals court upholds the ban, setting the stage for a fight over the law at the Supreme Court. Later that month, Trump asks the top court to pause the ban to "resolve the dispute through political means"
• 10 January 2025: The Supreme Court hears arguments from lawyers on behalf of TikTok and its users. Justices appear inclined to uphold it by arguing that ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, does not have First Amendment rights to free speech
• 17 January 2025: The Supreme Court unanimously rules to uphold the ban, which is scheduled to go into effect on Sunday

A TikTok ban in the US had support from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. But many everyday Americans do not agree.

In the latest episode of Americast, Sarah, Marianna and Anthony unpick the politics behind the ban and the players who may step in to prevent TikTok shutting its US operation.

You can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

If you type 'TikTok ban' into TikTok right now, creators with big and small followings are reacting to news of the incoming ban.

Father and son comedy duo Joe and Frank Mele - who run an account with over 30m followers - say they "don't really know what [the ban] means for the future of TikTok" and will continue to post on the app while they still can.

"In case the ban comes quicker than we hope, we just wanted to say thank you," they say in a video posted on Friday.

Other creators are following a trend of lip-syncing to a Family Guy quote or expressing their hope that YouTuber Mr Beast might "save TikTok" after he said he wanted to buy the app on X.

A former cybersecurity advisor to Barack Obama says the Supreme Court's decision to uphold TikTok ban was "rushed".

Timothy Edgar, a former ACLU lawyer who served on Obama's National Security Council, helped submit a brief to the Supreme Court in support of TikTok's appeal.

Speaking to Anita Anand on Radio 4's PM programme, he said he was surprised with the unanimous decision and "frankly disappointed with the reasoning".

Edgar argued that Americans "deserved a better process", and alleged that the Supreme Court decision "ignores some of the more important questions that we tried to raise in our brief".

"I thought this was a very important free speech case," Edgar said. "I've called it the most important free speech case in a generation."

The former cybersecurity official said that he though that there is little that Trump can do as president to overturn the decision.

"Congress enacted this law and only Congress can repeal it," said Edgar, who expressed doubt that TikTok could be sold.

Image source, Getty Images

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has thanked President-elect Donald Trump for his commitment to "work with us to find a solution including that keeps TikTok available in the United States".

Chew posted the comments on TikTok after the Supreme Court upheld a law that could ban the app unless it is sold from its current Chinese owner ByteDance.

As we reported earlier, Trump said any decision on the app's future will be up to him, but that he "must have time to review the situation". Media reports previously suggested that Trump may issue an executive order to delay the ban for 60 to 90 days.

US media reported yesterday that Zi was invited by the president-elect's team to attend the inauguration on Monday. He is expected to attend.

Aidan Walker
BBC Future reporter

Image source, Getty Images

With the guillotine hovering over TikTok's neck, users are bracing for a cultural void.

For all the criticisms levied at the app, many say TikTok created a system that made them feel nurtured and uniquely empowered.

No platform in recent memory has had a story or impact quite like TikTok's. It fuelled thousands of small businesses, filled billions of idle hours with entertaining, informative content. It offered opportunities to activists and artists at a moment of increasing uncertainty.

A third of US adults, external and the majority of teenagers are on TikTok, and globally, the app has been downloaded nearly five billion times. According to an analysis by Know Your Meme,, external more of the internet memes gathered by its encyclopaedia came from TikTok, starting in 2022, than anywhere else. Without a doubt, TikTok is the hub for online culture.

• Read more from users and creators reflecting on what TikTok did for internet culture

At the heart of TikTok is its algorithm - a set of instructions that determine the content displayed to users, based on data about how they engaged with other material.

TikTok can use this data, as well as information about an individual user's device, location and keystroke rhythms, to recommend videos to users on its automatically generated For You feed.

Some researchers have previously claimed the app collects more data from users than others in order to power its highly personalised system.

However, rival social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram collect similar user data.

Imran Rahman-Jones
Technology reporter

Image source, Getty

At the end of the Supreme Court’s opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch outlines his own opinion on the “dramatic” law.

The Court agrees with the government that there is a risk of American users’ data being sent to the Chinese state.

Justice Gorsuch considers whether alternative laws could have worked to stop this - for example, forbidding TikTok from sending sensitive data abroad.

“The record suggests that would do little to deter [China] from exploiting TikTok to steal Americans’ data,” he says.

And he says the “complexity” of TikTok “may make it impossible for law enforcement to detect violations.”

Finally, he says that in order to check Americans’ data wasn’t flowing overseas, the government would have to monitor its own citizens’ data - which itself would cause “constitutional concerns".

Iqra Farooq
BBC World Services

Image source, Kelley Heyer

We've been getting reaction from TikTokers who make a living from the app.

Drew Talbert has more than five million followers and tells the BBC World Service's OS programme that his life changed because of the platform.

"I went from being a waiter to being able to own a home and it all started with TikTok. We've seen this coming for years and have built up our platforms elsewhere to protect ourselves," he says.

"We don't buy the reasoning for this," he adds.

Kalani Smith has more than three million followers and calls the proposal "a slap in the face".

"I was homeless before TikTok and lived in the back of my car. Using TikTok propelled me to where I'm at now... Everyone is praying for some sort of miracle - it feels like the government has turned their backs on us," he says.

Kelley Heyer created the viral Apple Dance to Charli XCX's song, which took over timelines last year, and says millions of Americans use TikTok.

"The government taking away TikTok is essentially the government taking away jobs from millions of people," she says.

Joe Tidy
Cyber correspondent

The last few months of flipping and flopping about TikTok have been a dramatic illustration of the conundrum when a rival nation has a hit product in a rival country.

TikTok’s meteoric rise has, for the first time, challenged the dominance of US social networks.

It’s a new problem for the US and the West in general and the US’s handling of the issue must be quite amusing and perplexing for the Chinese government.

After all – it’s important to remember that this is something that China never has to worry about.

All western social networks are banned in China as standard. It’s been this way for years as part of China’s tight control of what its citizens do online.

Rachel Looker
Reporting from Washington

Image source, Reuters

Following on from my last post, law professor Carl Tobias says there’s several different ways President-elect Donald Trump could intervene to keep TikTok available to its 170 million American users.

The Washington Post previously reported that Trump may issue an executive order to delay the ban for 60 to 90 days.

Tobias calls this the “safest course” by allowing the app’s users to continue to have access to the platform while Trump finds a solution.

"Whether that solution will be easy to consummate is another matter," he says, adding that there could be obstacles to finding a US-backed company to take over the platform.

He also says Trump could instruct the Department of Justice to not enforce the ban, which would likely raise legal questions with the courts.

Rachel Looker
Reporting from Washington

Carl Tobias, a professor at University of Richmond’s School of Law, says he's not surprised by the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the ban on TikTok.

He calls it a "well-reasoned" opinion that upholds legislation Congress passed where national security concerns trumped First Amendment concerns.

"I think the court was cautious about overturning an act that had such strong bipartisan support in Congress," he tells me.

Tobias adds that the Biden administration is being deferential by not intervening to block the ban with the incoming administration days away from taking office.

"I think he (Biden) was graciously not stepping in the last second and allowing Trump to go ahead to do whatever he could do once he came into office," he says.

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

ByteDance has so far rebuffed the idea of selling TikTok. But the lawyer for the US government told the Supreme Court that a ban might be just the “jolt” needed to persuade it to consider the idea, noting that restrictions could be lifted once a deal materialises.

Any number of companies and billionaires in the US have said they might be interested.

Steven Mnuchin, who as treasury secretary under Donald Trump worked on efforts to sell the app, said last March after the law passed that he was working to put together a group.

Earlier this month, former LA Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and Kevin O’Leary, an investor famous from Shark Tank, also came forward to say they were assembling a bid.

Bobby Kotick, who led video game company Activision Blizzard before its sale to Microsoft, is among the other names reportedly interested.

Even Youtuber Mr Beast appeared to toss his hat in the ring, discussing meeting with “billionaires” about the idea on social media this week, while Chinese officials were reportedly eyeing Elon Musk as a possible buyer.

Helena Humphrey and Claire Betzer
Reporting from Yuma, Arizona

We’re in Yuma County, Arizona, speaking to voters just as the news about the Supreme Court’s ruling broke.

Jonathan Dinsmore is a fourth-generation leafy greens and hay farmer, who’s amassed more than 350,000 followers on TikTok - showing his audience a farmer’s view of Yuma.

“It’s been an opportunity for me to be able to share about our farm, something I’m passionate about,” Jon tells us.

Showing off his rows of iceberg and romaine, the fourth-generation farmer appeared to take the ruling in his stride.

“If we have to move to other platforms, I’m sure that will be the case, but many folks have really taken advantage of it - and we’re optimistic,” Jon says.

The Justice Department has just said the Supreme Court's decision enables the department to "prevent the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to undermine America’s national security”.

"Authoritarian regimes should not have unfettered access to millions of Americans’ sensitive data," Attorney General Merrick Garland says.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco says the decision underscores that the bipartisan legislation passed in Congress and signed into law by President Biden protects Americans rather than restricting free speech.

"The next phase of this effort - implementing and ensuring compliance with the law after it goes into effect on January 19 - will be a process that plays out over time," Monaco says in the statement.