WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court voted unanimously to uphold legislation that requires TikTok to be sold or banned across the country.
Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, says the 9-0 decision did not come as a surprise.
“This is what was expected from the Supreme Court,” Levinson said, who continued to explain, “The Supreme Court was faced with a first amendment challenge to a law that had broad bipartisan support and a law that was supported by national security concerns.”
The video app is used by more than 170 million people across the U.S.
If ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the app, does not sell it, the platform could go dark in two days time. Meaning users would no longer have updating access to the application.
Levinson says users would still have the app on their phones, but they would not be able to download it or update the app on their device.
“It is really up to TikTok as to whether or not they want to shut down or whether they want to die a slow death,” Levinson added.
Meanwhile, the CEO of TikTok posted a message on the app thanking American users and President-elect Donald Trump for supporting the platform.
Trump vows to save the app once he returns to the White House. The law goes into effect this Sunday.