Why is TikTok banned? What’s behind the law that shuttered the app

Washington — The 170 million TikTok customers within the U.S. have been in for a impolite awakening late Saturday evening when the enormously well-liked video-sharing app turned inaccessible due to a legislation handed by a bipartisan majority in Congress final yr.

TikTok voluntarily shut down service to its customers forward of Sunday’s ban. Customers within the U.S. who opened the app have been greeted with a message with the headline, “Sorry, TikTok is not out there proper now.”

 “A legislation banning TikTok has been enacted within the U.S.,” the message reads. “Sadly, which means you’ll be able to’t use TikTok for now. We’re lucky that President Trump has indicated that he’ll work with us on an answer to reinstate TikTok as soon as he takes workplace. Please keep tuned!”

TikTok was additionally not out there within the Apple or Google Play shops. CBS Information has reached out to TikTok for remark. 

Lawmakers and U.S. officers have sounded the alarm for years concerning the supposed dangers that TikTok’s ties to China pose to nationwide safety, and Congress moved final yr to power TikTok’s Chinese language dad or mum firm, ByteDance, to promote its stake within the app or be minimize off from the U.S. market. The legislation gave the corporate a deadline of Jan. 19 — in the future earlier than a brand new president would take workplace.

With no signal of a sale in sight, TikTok’s last-ditch authorized problem failed on Friday when the Supreme Court docket mentioned the legislation doesn’t violate the First Modification. 

The Biden White Home mentioned it should go away enforcement of the legislation to the incoming Trump administration, and President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to “save” the app. On Saturday, Trump informed NBC Information he was contemplating an choice to increase the deadline for the legislation to enter impact. 

“The 90-day extension is one thing that shall be most definitely achieved, as a result of it is applicable,” he mentioned within the cellphone interview, including, “if I resolve to try this, I am going to in all probability announce it on Monday.”

The legislation permits the president, below some circumstances, to grant a one-time extension of as much as 90 days concerning the date when the legislation goes into impact.

TikTok had hinted it could take itself offline, a transfer that leaves content material creators and customers within the lurch as the corporate seeks a technique to get again on agency authorized footing. 

In a press release offered to CBS Information Friday night, TikTok mentioned that the Biden administration had “failed to offer the mandatory readability and assurance to the service suppliers which are integral to sustaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million People. Until the Biden Administration instantly offers a definitive assertion to fulfill probably the most essential service suppliers assuring non-enforcement, sadly TikTok shall be compelled to go darkish on January 19.”

White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had earlier Saturday known as TikTok’s newest assertion “a stunt.”

“We have now seen the latest assertion from TikTok,” Jean-Pierre mentioned. “It’s a stunt, and we see no purpose for TikTok or different corporations to take actions within the subsequent few days earlier than the Trump Administration takes workplace on Monday. We have now laid out our place clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this legislation will fall to the subsequent administration. So TikTok and different corporations ought to take up any considerations with them.”

Here is what to know concerning the TikTok ban and the way we obtained right here:

Why did Congress need to ban TikTok? 

U.S. officers have repeatedly warned that TikTok threatens nationwide safety as a result of the Chinese language authorities may use it as a car to spy on People or covertly affect the U.S. public by amplifying or suppressing sure content material. 

The priority is warranted, they mentioned, as a result of Chinese language nationwide safety legal guidelines require organizations to cooperate with intelligence gathering. FBI Director Christopher Wray informed Home Intelligence Committee members final yr that the Chinese language authorities may compromise People’ units by means of the software program. 

Because the Home took up the divest-or-ban legislation in April 2024, Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, in contrast it to a “spy balloon in People’ telephones.” Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, mentioned that lawmakers realized in categorised briefings “how rivers of knowledge are being collected and shared in methods that aren’t well-aligned with American safety pursuits.” 

“Why is it a safety risk?” Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri mentioned Friday. “In case you have TikTok in your cellphone at the moment, it will possibly observe your whereabouts, it will possibly learn your textual content messages, it will possibly observe your keystrokes. It has entry to your cellphone data.” 

If the Chinese language authorities will get its arms on that info, “it is not only a nationwide safety risk, it is a private safety risk,” Hawley mentioned. 

In 2022, TikTok started an initiative often known as “Mission Texas” to safeguard American customers’ knowledge on servers within the U.S. and ease lawmakers’ fears. The Justice Division mentioned the plan was inadequate as a result of it nonetheless allowed some U.S. knowledge to circulate to China. 

Although the divest-or-ban legislation handed with bipartisan help, some lawmakers have been essential of the measure, agreeing with TikTok that it infringes on People’ free speech rights. 

“A lot of the causes the federal government banned it have been based mostly on accusations, not proof,” Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky mentioned Friday. “[TikTok has] by no means been tried and located responsible of sharing info with the communist authorities.” 

Others have modified their tune because the deadline for a ban neared, together with Trump, who tried to ban the app with an govt order throughout his first time period that was struck down within the courts. 

“The irony in all of that is that Donald Trump was the primary one to level on the market’s an issue,” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the highest Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, mentioned Thursday. Warner mentioned the Trump administration “did an excellent job of convincing me and overwhelming members of Congress” concerning the dangers. 

TikTok has its day on the Supreme Court docket 

Throughout arguments earlier than the Supreme Court docket on Jan. 10, TikTok’s lawyer didn’t deny the potential nationwide safety dangers because the justices appeared essential of the corporate’s authorized problem.

“I feel Congress and the president have been involved that China was accessing details about tens of millions of People, tens of tens of millions of People, together with youngsters, folks of their 20s, that they’d use that info over time to develop spies, to show folks, to blackmail folks, individuals who a era from now shall be working within the FBI or the CIA or within the State Division,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh mentioned. “Is that not a practical evaluation by Congress and the president of the dangers right here?” 

Noel Francisco, who represented TikTok, responded, “I am not disputing the dangers. I am disputing the signifies that they’ve chosen.” 

Solicitor Common Elizabeth Prelogar asserted that TikTok collects “unprecedented quantities” of non-public knowledge that will be “extremely precious” to the Chinese language authorities by giving it “a robust instrument for harassment, recruitment and espionage.” 

“For years, the Chinese language authorities has sought to construct detailed profiles about People, the place we reside and work, who our buddies and coworkers are what our pursuits are and what our vices are,” she mentioned, citing main knowledge breaches that the U.S. has attributed to China during the last decade, together with the hack of the Workplace of Personnel Administration that compromised the private info of tens of millions of federal staff.

The Supreme Court docket’s TikTok choice

In defending the legislation earlier than the Supreme Court docket, the Justice Division pointed to 2 primary nationwide safety justifications: countering China’s assortment of knowledge from TikTok’s 170 million U.S. customers and its purported means to govern content material on the app to additional its geopolitical pursuits.

The Supreme Court docket’s unanimous ruling hinged on the primary justification: that China, by means of the app and its dad or mum firm, Beijing-based ByteDance, can amass huge quantities of knowledge from American customers. The justices discovered that Congress didn’t violate the First Modification by taking motion to deal with that risk. Congress, it mentioned, “had good purpose to single out TikTok for particular therapy.”

The courtroom kept away from backing the federal government’s curiosity in stopping China’s purported covert manipulation of content material, which the Biden administration had cited as a nationwide safety justification for the legislation.

“One man’s ‘covert content material manipulation’ is one other’s ‘editorial discretion,'” Gorsuch wrote in an opinion concurring in judgment. “Journalists, publishers, and audio system of every kind routinely make less-than-transparent judgments about what tales to inform and methods to inform them. With out query, the First Modification has a lot to say about the best to make these decisions.”

contributed to this report.