The days of TikTok in the United States may be numbered.
CNN reported on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, that after more than two hours of oral arguments from TikTok lawyers, users, and representatives of the Biden administration, a majority of the conservative-majority Supreme Court appeared likely to uphold the ban.
The court’s reasoning focused less on First Amendment implications and more on addressing the potential foreign control of an app used by 170 million Americans.
On April 24, 2024, President Joe Biden signed a law mandating that ByteDance sell TikTok to a U.S. company within a year or face a ban due to concerns about the app’s ties to China. Currently, the app is slated to be unavailable in the U.S. starting Jan. 19, 2025.
Friday’s Supreme Court hearing came a day after Kevin O’Leary and Frank McCourt entered the race to acquire TikTok, as reported by Fortune.
On Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, a group of investors, including “Shark Tank” star O’Leary, McCourt, and his nonprofit organization Project Liberty, presented a formal bid to acquire TikTok from its parent company, ByteDance.
ByteDance has vigorously opposed the sale, claiming it infringes on the free speech rights of the platform’s 170 million users.
“We were concerned that the Justices were going into their considerations for the Friday hearing under the assumption that the company claimed there were no American buyers,” O’Leary said Thursday, as Fortune reported.
Project Liberty president Tomicah Tillemann confirmed that the organization, which operated under the name People’s Bid for TikTok, submitted its bid after securing financial backing and receiving a vote of confidence from government officials in both the Biden and incoming Trump administrations, per Fortune.
The organization plans to reform the social media company using McCourt’s long-held vision of restructuring the internet’s infrastructure to collect less user data.
While McCourt estimated TikTok’s value at around $20 billion, Fortune reported that Tillemann did not disclose the specific value of the offer submitted to ByteDance. ByteDance has not definitively specified which assets will be included in a potential sale.
Tillemann noted that the investor group has been in contact with the Department of Justice — which has the final say on a possible 90-day extension included in the law for ongoing sales — believing they can complete a deal within that time frame.
O’Leary told Fortune on Thursday that proving to the courts that a viable U.S. bid exists addresses free speech concerns raised by TikTok, individual users, and Based Politics Inc., a conservative group that uses the platform. He asserted that if ByteDance were to sell TikTok, the service would continue while complying with Congress. “It’s simply your decision whether you want to sell it or not,” he said.
Chinese internet entrepreneur Zhang Yiming co-founded TikTok in 2012 as part of ByteDance, as previously reported by AFROTECH™. The social media platform launched in the U.S. in 2018, using an algorithm to provide users with tailored short-form video content.
However, lawmakers and national security experts have concerns about the data ByteDance collects and stores about Americans and the app’s influence on public opinion.
TikTok asserted that the ban derived from inaccurate, flawed, and hypothetical information, leading to the American public’s censorship.
“The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue,” TikTok previously said in a statement to ABC News, AFROTECH™ reported.
“The TikTok ban, unless stopped, will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the U.S. and around the world on Jan. 19, 2025,” the statement added.
