By leah jones
The majority-conservative Supreme Court has "likely" decided to follow through with the TikTok ban despite opposition from TikTok’s lawyers, the app’s user and the Biden administration, according to CNN.
This ban is rooted in suspicion over the Chinese-owned app collecting and storing the data of its over 170 million American users. Additionally, there are concerns over the app’s influence on public opinion.
The platform was co-founded by Chinese internet entrepreneur Zhang Yiming in 2012 and launched with huge popularity in the US in 2018. It is set to be banned in the US on Jan. 19, 2025.
President Joe Biden signed a law in April 2024 mandating that Bytedance (the Chinese company that owns TikTok) must sell the app to a US company or the app will be banned .
Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank and Frank McCourt, with his nonprofit organization Project Liberty, presented a bid to Bytedance to acquire TikTok.
The value of the bid was not revealed but McCourt estimated the app’s value to be around $20 billion.
The president of Project Liberty, Tomicah Tillemann secured financial backing before presenting the bid as well as receiving approval from both the Biden and Trump administrations.
Bytedance has opposed selling the app since talks of the ban began as it claims selling it infringes on the free speech of the apps hundreds of millions of users.
Tillemann said he believes the organization can complete a deal to acquire TikTok within the 90-day extension for purchasing it that the law banning the app includes.
O’Leary also said providing the courts with this viable bid can address the free speech concerns raised by those like users, TikTok itself and conservative group Based Politics Inc.
Project Liberty plans to reform the app by restructuring it to collect less user data.